New period novel highlighted

Spinifex Press is pushing Mira Robertson’s *Grace and Marigold*, a 272-page novel set in 1974 London and published on August 6, 2024. (spinifexpress.com.au) The book follows Grace, a 20-year-old Australian who arrives in London hoping to reinvent herself in a street of communal squats called the Free Republic of Beltonia. The publisher’s synopsis says Grace falls secretly in love with Marigold, who later disappears, setting off a search that reshapes Grace’s life. (spinifexpress.com.au) Spinifex lists the paperback ISBN as 9781922964045 and the ebook ISBN as 9781922964052. Its sales copy places the novel in 1970s London amid squatting, political protests, street parties, encounter groups and a chaotic publishing office where Grace finds work. (spinifexpress.com.au; spinifexpress.com.au) That pitch fits Spinifex’s catalog. The Australian independent press says it was founded in March 1991 by Susan Hawthorne and Renate Klein and has published nearly 300 books across fiction, memoir, poetry and political writing. (spinifexpress.com.au) Spinifex also says it has published books by and about lesbians for decades, making Robertson’s novel part of a longer house focus rather than a one-off release. The press’s current store and collections pages place *Grace and Marigold* alongside other Australian fiction and lesbian-interest titles. (spinifexpress.com.au; spinifexpress.com.au) Robertson is not a debut novelist. Spinifex and the Emerging Writers’ Festival identify *Grace and Marigold* as her second novel after *The Unexpected Education of Emily Dean* in 2018, and note that she previously co-wrote the films *Only the Brave* and *Head On* with director Ana Kokkinos. (spinifexpress.com.au; emergingwritersfestival.org.au) The novel received a formal launch cycle in 2024. Spinifex scheduled a Readings Carlton launch and a separate global online launch in August 2024, with the online event led by Elaine Hutton and Lynne Harne of the Lesbian Rights Alliance and Lesbian History Group. (spinifexpress.com.au; spinifexpress.com.au) Trade and review coverage has leaned on the same selling points now resurfacing in the publisher’s social posts. *Books+Publishing* highlighted the novel in August 2024, while *ArtsHub* described Robertson’s book as a return to the social world of the 1970s and noted her earlier screenwriting career. (booksandpublishing.com.au; artshub.com.au) For readers, the current push is straightforward: an established feminist small press is trying to extend the life of a 2024 release by stressing period setting, lesbian coming-of-age themes and a character-led plot. Those are the same elements Spinifex has attached to *Grace and Marigold* from publication through its latest promotion. (spinifexpress.com.au; spinifexpress.com.au)