00:00This is Janet Christie at the Scotsman, speaking to Judy Murray.
00:04A former Scottish international tennis player with 64 titles to her name,
00:09Scottish national coach from 1995, a Strictly Come Dancing contestant,
00:13Judy Murray is now a best-selling author with her first novel, The Wild Card.
00:18She'll be appearing at the New St Andrews Book Festival in London on Thursday 28th November.
00:24Can you tell us about The Wild Card? What's it about?
00:28The Wild Card is a story of Abigail Paterson and it's two halves of her life.
00:34So the first 17 years where she overcomes some really quite horrific adversity in her young life,
00:41finds solace in tennis, unexpectedly becomes one of the most promising juniors in Britain
00:47and then is forced to give up at the age of 17.
00:51And the second half of her life, which is the present of the story,
00:54is her on her way to Wimbledon to play on the centre court for the first time,
00:59fulfilling the childhood dream against all the odds, having come through the pre-qualifying and the qualifying.
01:05And she's in the courtesy car, she hears the radio presenters talking about her,
01:10remembering her as an outstanding young talent,
01:13wondering what's happened to her in the last 20 years because she disappeared off the face of the earth.
01:18And they're asking the listeners to fill them in,
01:21if anybody has any information would you let us know what she's been doing in the last 20 years
01:25because she is of course by now the sensation of the tournament.
01:29And she panics in the back seat because she realises that the secret that she has been keeping for 20 years
01:35is about to come out in the full view of the public eye.
01:41Okay, and we're not going to reveal the secret obviously.
01:44What does it feel like to write another bestseller?
01:48Yeah, I did a memoir which was in lots of ways easier because it's your life and you go through it chronologically.
01:56It's the first time I've done a work of fiction and it's great fun because your imagination can go anywhere.
02:03So although there is a lot of behind the scenes, particularly of Wimbledon,
02:08of understanding all the people that are involved, whether that's the other competitors, the entourages,
02:13the organisers, the media and also just how you manage the day to day practice, the match etc.
02:24So there's a lot of behind the scenes content, it includes a bird's eye view of the dressing rooms and all the rest of it.
02:31So I think there's a lot of detail in there if you're a tennis fan because most of us that are tennis fans,
02:37we just see the performance and we don't see what goes into making the performance.
02:41So there was an opportunity to share many of the things that I've seen, heard and experienced through my many years of being on the tennis circuit.
02:50Okay, and we have your Strictly partner, Antoine Dubé, to thank for this partly.
02:57Yeah, it actually was entirely down to him that he's written about seven novels now that are all set in the ballroom dancing world
03:04and they say you should only write about what you know.
03:07And during COVID, he sent me a proof copy of his first novel to read, which was brilliant and I loved it.
03:14And we got chatting about why I loved it and I loved all the detail.
03:18I love the behind the scenes, the understanding of how the ballroom dance world operated.
03:23And he said, you should write one that's set in the tennis world.
03:26Think of all the things that you have experienced that people would love to hear about.
03:32And he set me up with his literary agent on a Zoom, which was all we did in the COVID days.
03:38And that was really where it started. The idea started from there.
03:42And as I started plotting down things that I thought would be interesting to talk about,
03:46I realised that a work of fiction gives you an opportunity to raise awareness of all sorts of issues for me that still exist in terms of the sporting world for women.
03:59But you can do it through a fictional situation.
04:02So you're not pointing the finger at anybody or anything directly, but they will raise a talking point.
04:08And hopefully by raising talking points, we can effect change in the longer term.
04:12OK, and just chief among those issues, what would you say they are?
04:16Yeah, well, I mean, one of the main things that we explore is the abuse of power.
04:21You know, whether that's coach player, fitness trainer, agent, you know, there are a lot of things.
04:28I think they really all came hugely to the surface when Simone Biles and the gymnasts took the team doctor to court.
04:35And it was interesting for me because it's very much the case that when something happens to you as a very young athlete, you don't know how to deal with it.
04:44You don't know who to go to. You're scared of losing your place in the team or your sponsorship and so forth.
04:49And so you hold it to yourself. And it's usually not till very much later when you're mature enough to be able to speak up about it.
04:57That something actually happens. And when she and the other gymnasts spoke up, the catalogue of abuse over many, many years from the team doctor was absolutely horrific.
05:08But it raised awareness, it created talking points and it became a catalyst for change in safeguarding women's sport.
05:16OK, great. And what do your sons think?
05:20Well, they sort of roll their eyes whenever I do something a little bit, a little bit different, but they're always incredibly supportive.
05:27But also, I just think protective of worried in case anything goes wrong. But actually, Wildcard's been very well received.
05:36Yeah, so take that. And oh, can you talk about the next one?
05:43Yeah, I probably can a little.
05:46OK, there's going to be another one.
05:48Yeah, there's a murder in the pipeline. It's almost finished. It's at the editing stage. It's going to be out in May, but I love a hood on it.
05:57So it's set in a tennis club. It's not specifically about tennis. It's just set in the environment of a tennis club.
06:04But I reckon we've all got a murder in us if the circumstances are right.
06:09OK, thanks very much. Thanks, Judy.
Comments