Judy Murray: 'I reckon we’ve all got a murder in us if the circumstances are right.'

This week Judy Murray will appear at the new St Andrew’s Book Festival in London, serving up an ace in the form of her bestselling debut fiction novel The Wild Card, which was published this summer. 

The former national tennis champ - 64 titles - national coach, mother to Andy and Jamie, grandmother and Strictly contestant will be talking about the book that took her into the bestsellers lists for the second time. Following the success of her 2017 memoir, Knowing the Score she will appear at the Festival along with a host of Scottish authors including Alexander McCall Smith, Ian Rankin, Lorraine Kelly, Ann Cleeves, Andrew O’Hagan and Jackie Kay. And not one for sitting still, when we meet in Edinburgh she has 12 pages of her next book in her bag to edit on the train on her way home to Perthshire. 

Murray has taken to the role of author with her usual energy, enjoying the circuit of book festivals she has visited while promoting The Wild Card. 

“I’ve found it great fun doing all the book festivals. I had never been at a book festival in my life until I did one with my memoir and it just catapults you into somebody else’s world. It’s fascinating to see that the literary world is just full of interesting people I would never have had the chance to meet.”

Judy Murray will be talking about her fiction debut, The Wild Card, at the St Andrew's Book Festival in London, and has also published an autobiography, Knowing the Score. She is now working on a whodunnit, her first foray into crime fiction. Thanks to Gleneagles Townhouse, Edinburgh. | Lisa Ferguson

The Wild Card, which has a twin storyline, one in the present, one in the past, follows the story of tennis player Abigail Patterson. 

“It’s two halves of her life, the first 17 years where she overcomes really quite horrific adversity, finds solace in tennis and unexpectedly becomes one of the most promising juniors in Britain but is forced to give up at the age of 17. Then 20 years later, when she’s on her way to Wimbledon to play on the Centre Court, fulfilling the childhood dream against all the odds, 

“The book kicks off when the sensation of the tournament is in the courtesy car and hears radio presenters asking listeners to fill them in on what’s happened to her in the last 20 years because she disappeared off the face of the earth and she realises that a secret she has been keeping for 20 years is about to be exposed in public.”

What does it feel like to write another bestseller? Murray laughs in a mixture of embarrassment, pleasure and just because in person she’s fun. 

“Yeah… I did a memoir which was in lots of ways easier because it’s your life and you go through it chronologically. This is the first time I’ve done a work of fiction and it’s great fun because your imagination can go anywhere. 

Murray was inspired to write a novel by her Strictly partner Anton Du Beke after he sent her a proof copy of his first novel to read during Covid. 

“It was entirely down to him,” she says. “He’s written about seven novels now, all set in the ballroom dancing world. I loved all the behind the scenes detail, how it operated and he said you should write one set in the tennis world, all the things you have experienced that people would love to hear about. He set me up with his literary agent on zoom and that was where it started. They say you should write about what you know.”

Murray certainly does write about what she knows, tennis and being in the public eye, but The Wild Card has more than that, exploring issues that are close to her heart. 

“Obviously I know the tennis world very well and I’m aware most people see the performance, and don’t see the culmination of years of practise and effort. So there was an opportunity to do a really in-depth dive behind the scenes via Wimbledon - the players’ routine and the pathway it takes to get you to the top and explore the people  - the team, fans, competitors, opponents and journalists.

“But I also realised the great thing about fiction is you can go wherever you want and there was an opportunity to raise awareness of a number of things that can be difficult to talk about, such as issues that still exist for women in the sporting world. You’re not pointing the finger at anybody or anything directly but will raise a talking point, and hopefully by doing that we can affect change in the longer term. So one of the main things explored is the abuse of power, whether that’s player and coach or fitness or agent. 

“That came hugely to the surface when Simone Biles took the team doctor to court [in the US gymnastics sexual abuse scandal]. 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. and when she and the other gymnasts spoke up about the catalogue of abuse over many, many years from the team doctor it raised awareness and became a catalyst for change in safeguarding women’s sport.” 

“Also in tennis, there are the haves and the have nots. It’s very difficult to get to the top unless you have means or a wealthy sponsor and Abi does not come from a wealthy family or a family who even has any understanding of tennis, but her best friend has a court in her garden and Abi benefits. We all know that in life we need our friends, our support group.”

Judy Murray started writing after a suggestion from Strictly Come Dancing partner Anton Du Beke. her debut fiction novel, The Wild Card, is out now. Thanks to Gleneagles Townhouse, Edinburgh. | Lisa Ferguson

If the public response to The Wild Card has been positive, how did her sons Andy and Jamie react?

She laughs. “They sort of roll their eyes whenever I do something a little bit different, but they’re always incredibly supportive. I think they’re protective, or worried in case anything goes wrong. But actually The Wild Card has been very well received.  

“They’re constantly raising their eyebrows at me, ‘what are you doing now?’,” she laughs. “The first time I really experienced that was when I said ‘I’ve been asked to do Strictly’ and I took the easy option first and asked Jamie and he said ‘oh mum you love Strictly, are you going to do it? That would be good fun’, and then I asked Andy and he stared at me for about 15 seconds without saying anything and then he went ‘Oh my god. You’ll be crap’.” She laughs. 

“And they were both right because I was crap and I did absolutely love it. Strictly was the first thing I’d done for myself in years. My life had been saturated with tennis. So when I said I was writing a book I got the usual roll of the eyebrows and ‘what next!’ from both of them.”

Why was Jamie ‘the easy option’? 

“I think Andy’s always much more… because of the world in which he has operated for a long time, he’s very aware of the pitfalls of putting yourself out in the public eye. I mean with Strictly it was like you know ‘15 million people or whatever watch that every week mum’. Because I had an uneasy relationship with the media who portrayed me so horrifically for such a long time I think he’s always worried it might work badly for me. It’s from a protective base.” 

Does she think the media is less critical and misogynistic in its treatment of her now? 

“I think there’s less of that. I think it probably started to change when I became the Fed captain of the British women’s team [The Federation Cup/The Billie Jean King Cup is the premier international team competition in women's tennis] in 2011, and when I did Strictly the public in general but also the media saw a different side of me, having a go, out of your comfort zone, having fun, laughing at yourself. 

“And also all the work I’ve done in growing the game across the country, the endless hours and years of that, I think people realised that I’m a tennis coach and I’ve given back to the sport in every way I possibly could. While The Boys are off raising the profile and doing great things I’ve tried to grow the game at grass roots level, particularly in Scotland and particularly for women across the UK, so I think people have seen another side of me. 

“But when we started out it was incredibly misogynistic because I was that unusual dynamic of mother of sons and a competitive mother and they painted me as uberpushy parent and I was like, ‘wow, you know, anybody who has a child in an individual sport knows that the onus is on the parents to make things happen. And it is very easy for parents to become over-emotionally invested because you have to do it all and spend hours watching, travelling and often parents get a bad rep just for being there and asking questions and trying. I always say if my kids had been great footballers they’d have been signed up by a club and that would have provided the coaching, fitness and travel and I wouldn’t have had to do anything.

Does she think she was overly emotionally invested or a ‘pushy mum’?

“No, I absolutely wasn’t, but I know plenty of people who are pushy and plenty who are mis-labelled just for trying their best for their child. But no, I wasn’t. 

How much of The Wild Card is based on Murray’s own life, the main character of Abi, for instance?

“No, she’s not based on me. I mean there are lots of things that I’ve seen and heard and experienced in there but the only bit people would recognise of me is when Abi changes her coach to a woman who takes the time to get to know her and understands the world according to girls, and she has a much better experience - a mother of two young boys with a softly spoken Scottish accent,” she laughs.

How about the idea of second chances - Abi has to give up at 17 but 20 years later is the sensation of Wimbledon, how did that idea resonate with Murray? 

“Yeah I think the fact that Abi had to give up was something I could identify with because when I was 17, I’d finished my Highers and had a deal with my dad that if I got a place at Edinburgh University I could take a year to travel and play tennis tournaments. I went off to Europe and in those days there were no mobile phones, ATM machines, internet, hardly any flights, you were completely disconnected, and I went by myself. I didn’t last very long. I got robbed in Barcelona, my wallet, passport, all my money. I was very much on my own and didn’t speak the language. When I called my dad on a reverse charge call from Barcelona he said ‘it’s too dangerous you need to come home’ and kind of made the decision for me and I think I was glad he did, because I’m not one for giving up on anything.” 

“I always wished that things had been different, that I’d come from a country where your federation would accompany you on trips with a coach, and there would be more opportunity, so when I became the national coach I set about creating an infrastructure that allowed Scottish kids to have those chances. I never got the opportunity to play, but got the opportunity to have a huge experience of all of these major grand slam tournaments. I became the captain of the Great Britain women’s team so I did all of the things as a coach that I would have loved to have done as a player. For me there was a second chance too.” 

So in the words of her sons, but without the eye-rolling, I ask what’s next for the 65 year old.

“I have just about finished a whodunnit. It’s out in May. It’s still set in the tennis world, at a nice sort of country club and there’s a murder at the start and it could be any one of the ladies first team that has committed the crime. The way I’ve written it is a bit like Big Little Lies where it could be any of several people.”

There’s also tennis, her work with the Women’s Tennis Association, the tour, and she leads on  community engagement deliver workshops for coaches, teachers, volunteers, special needs, parents, runs clinics for kids’ teams and adults. 

“Basically we try to grow the game in the communities around the major events,” she says. 

And then there’s golf. 

“It was one sport I never had any interest in because it was so static but I started two years ago and I’ve got absolutely hooked.”

And she’s not the only one. Her brother is a professional coach and Jamie was a golf champion in his youth. Now that Andy is retired from playing professionally, he’s also taken up the sport too. 

“I think he’s almost in full time training as a golfer at the moment. He’s really into it and got his handicap down to 2. His goal is to get to scratch. He drops the kids at school then goes and plays. He’s used to the routine and discipline of training and can do it on his own. It’s almost like he’s switched tennis for golf. So he’s loving that at the moment, but there are endless offers of things for him to do.

Judy Murray is now working on her third book, a crime novel. Thanks to Gleneagles Townhouse, Edinburgh. | Lisa Ferguson

As for Judy, it’s time for her to leave and get back to work on her writing. 

“Yes, there’s a murder in the pipeline. It’s at the editing stage. I love a whodunnit. I reckon we’ve all got a murder in us if the circumstances are right,” she says, and laughs. “I’m going to work on some pages on the train.”

Judy Murray: The Wild Card - Judy Murray - In conversation with Georgina Godwin, Thursday 28 November 2024, 6.15-7.15pm, St Columba’s Church: Sanctuary, Pont Street, London SWIX OBD (www.standrewsbookfestival.org)

The Wild Card by Judy Murray is published by Orion Fiction, in paperback at £8.99

With thanks to Gleneagles Townhouse, Edinburgh, 39 St Andrew Square, Edinburgh, www.gleneagles.com/townhouse