My best friend and I have exchanged cross words on only a few occasions. One of these was during the European championships of 2004 when Portugal beat England 6-5 on penalties to go through to the semi-finals. My friend rang my doorbell just as David Beckham fired England’s first attempt over the goal. I let her in and then wished I hadn’t, as she – not a sports fan – reacted with incredulous humour as every successfully converted kick by Portugal’s players cast me deeper into despair. Eventually, tight-lipped, I suggested she go.
Annelise Gray by E.A. Dineley
Today, I hope I wouldn’t have such a childish reaction. But I am still hopelessly addicted to sporting drama of all forms, a passion that began in childhood when I learned that if I wanted to watch TV with my family, I was going to have to get used to a viewing diet rich in cricket, rugby, golf and American football. I’m not and never have been a great sportswoman myself. But I have always been a keen reader and for me, following a tennis match or watching the downhill skiing at the winter Olympics conjures many of the feelings you have when you’re reading a gripping book. You invest in the characters, you get caught up in their quest and you pledge to stay with them to the end of their journey, whatever the outcome may be.
My Circus Maximus series of books for children and young adults tell the story of a young Roman girl called Dido who has to fight to achieve her dream of being allowed to compete in the all-male sport of chariot racing. In writing them, I’ve come to appreciate how important it was for me to have female athletic icons when I was growing up, women whose competitive spirit and determination to succeed, often against the odds, inspired me in ways I didn’t realise at the time. Women like Steffi Graf – still the only tennis player, male or female, to have achieved the Golden Grand Slam of winning all four majors plus an Olympic title in a single year. Or Kelly Holmes who I cheered on so many times only to see her run out of the medals near the finish, before eventually she won two golds at the Athens Olympics in 2004.
But my greatest inspiration was a fourteen-year-old girl called Velvet Brown. I met her in the pages of a book called National Velvet, about a young girl who wins a horse in a village raffle and dreams of riding him to victory at the Grand National. Since reading it for the first of many times when I was twelve years old, I always dreamed that one day fiction would become reality and I’d see a female jockey win the National. Last year, two months after the publication of the first book in the Circus Maximus series - Race to the Death - I cheered myself hoarse as Rachael Blackmore and Minella Times finally achieved that historic feat. And in the moment, my twelve-year-old self and I waved to each other across space and time, celebrating the triumph as if it was our own.
Sport has the power to inspire. To me, it is so much more than just a game.
Circus Maximus: Rivals on the Track by Annelise Gray is out in hardback on Thursday 3 February from Zephyr. Book one in the Circus Maximus series is out now in paperback.