I’ve followed cricket—though not avidly—for years. I was never inclined to attend a game, content to watch from the sofa… because cricket matches are long and boring, right? 

I was only vaguely aware of the women’s game, but I heard of a new competition called The Hundred, and in 2023, I went to my first-ever match. It was an amazing day out, thanks to the sunshine, a tight game, and the opportunity to see “celebrity” athletes up close. The approachability of the players and their engagement with fans (especially youngsters) is a vital component of Wicket Maiden.

My experience echoes the sentiment of new England Women’s coach Charlotte Edwards, who said the tournament had “single-handedly changed women’s cricket in this country”.

Then, coincidentally, I read a sports romcom—a romance between a professional sportsperson and a fan. (Of course, the MMC was the athlete, because women’s sport is hugely under-represented in fiction.) Nevertheless, I thought, “What if…?” Could I riff on that idea? I already had one sports romcom in the works, and another sketched out, but neither were player + fan stories.

Being a cricket fan had put me front and centre of the experience, sitting in the ‘real world’ and looking onto the pitch – ‘their world’. This became the central idea of the story, something hugely resonant with the film Notting Hill. In fact, re-watching the film shows how striking the similarities are.

In 2024, things really took off. I attended matches for pleasure as well as research, absorbing the game, the warm-up, the off-field activity, the atmosphere, and how players interact with their teammates. I wanted to get a sense of what life would be like for my protagonist, Ellie. I needed her POV to be representative of the real world, so the reader experiences life and cricket through her eyes. Of course, the story is fiction, but the palette on which it’s painted had to be realistic.

To obtain that accuracy, I took a deep breath, collared a member of staff, and asked about concussion injuries – because this is part of the storyline… and definitely not something to misrepresent! She was intrigued that I was writing a book featuring women’s cricket. 

From there, things spiralled in the best possible way. Within weeks, I was interviewing players. These insights affected the plot and the characters, leading to more questions, more nuance, and so on. Without the research and the club’s support, the book wouldn’t be as rounded and immersive as it is.

There’s another aspect to this. One of the key themes of Wicket Maiden is Adam, the fan, needing to “get over” the nervousness of being around an elite athlete, to see her as a normal person. I have lived this journey. In fact, some of my experiences are in the book, and the writing process was one of life imitating art imitating life.

I wanted to give Adam an interesting job, and as an artist-photographer, his life crosses into Ellie’s world. Whilst she is already famous—one of the reasons he couldn’t consider dating her—he doesn’t crave fame, only more success.

This forms part of one of the themes—how celebrity relates to success, the double-edged sword of fame, and the ease by which anyone can become ‘famous’ without much tangible achievement or talent.

What Ellie and Adam discover is that they have more in common than first appears.

I like creating strong female protagonists, and by making her, not him, the strong, athletic, famed central character, I’m playing against genre stereotypes. As a writer, I don’t favour the FMC falling for the MMC based on looks alone, and prefer a slow-burn romance.

My stories are relatable rather than idealised. There’s always a bittersweet edge, an emotional hurdle for the characters to get over. This is as true for Ellie as it is for Adam. Their career arcs are as important as their romantic journey—and both parts are entwined.

It’s my author brand not to write to market, but to pen stories which excite me. With this novel, I never set out to cash in on the growing popularity of women’s cricket or women’s sport in general. The book’s existence and its timing are only the happiest of accidents. After all, what sane writer would actively try to create a new sub-genre of romance fiction?! 

Yet, when I talk to people about Wicket Maiden, eyebrows are raised for all the right reasons. More than that, it seems to have gone down well with readers, often exciting those who wonder why this kind of book hasn’t been written before.

Well, they’re in luck, because there are two more cricket romcoms in the pipeline!