GUEST COLUMN
The world according to...
The 63-year-old on Wimbledon stress, and being persuaded by Anton Du Beke to write a novel
This will be my 21st year of being at Wimbledon to watch my sons Andy and Jamie play and it never gets any easier. Frankly, it's like a series of mini heart attacks and severe nausea all going on at the same time.
I started finding it even more stressful when the boys got to the top of the game because of the expectations on them whether from fans, or the media or from themselves. Wimbledon puts so much pressure on British players because the eyes of the whole country are on the championships.
The name of the game
For 35 years, my life was saturated with tennis as a coach, so now when I have free time, I want to do anything but be near a tennis court. I like playing Padel tennis and Pickleball, and golf, which I have just taken up. And, of course, spending time with my family. I've got five grandchildren who I fly down to London to see as often as I can - Andy's children Sophia, seven, Edie, five, Teddie, three, and Lola, two; and Jamie's daughter Ava, who is ten months. Like all grannies, I love being able to spoil them, wind them up, and then hand them back! None ofthem show signs so far of following in their daddies' footsteps.
A novel idea
When you are in your sixties there's a realisation that you are coming into the final third of your life, so why not rock that boat a bit! About three years ago, Anton Du Beke, my Strictly dance partner, sent me his first novel set in the world of ballroom and suggested I write one set in the world of tennis. So that prompted me to write my first novel, The Wild Card. The main character is a woman who put her promising tennis career on hold and finds herself back at Wimbledon many years later. The characters aren't based on anyone real but, funnily enough, when I was 17 and Scotland's number-one player, I was offered a tennis scholarship at the University of Virginia. I didn't go because 45 years ago, it wasn't the done thing in the way that it is now. I do look back and wonder how my life would have turned out if I had been brave enough to go.
The Wild Card by Judy Murray (Orion, £14.99) is out now in hardback
Judy will be appearing at the Henley Literary Festival, supported by Saga Exceptional, on 8 October at 2pm. See henleyliterary festival.co.uk
Just for laughs
There is no way I wou
