SPORTS BOOK OF THE WEEK
41-Love: A Memoir by Scarlett Thomas (Sportsbookofthemonth. com price: £ 13.86, saving £ 3.15 on rrp)
According to people who monitor such things, even our least ambitious new year resolutions last, on average, only until mid-February. The good news is that people who stick at their resolutions beyond the beginning of April have a very good chance of continuing with whatever it was they initially planned.
If, therefore, you find yourself wavering and are already considering abandoning your recently adopted personal pledges, you may wish to read Scarlett Thomas’s 41-Love: A Memoir , an engaging and inspirational account of a lady who, as she approaches middle age, feels there is something missing from her life.
Thomas is an accomplished author whose titles have already sold more than half a million copies; and a professor of creative writing and contemporary fiction at the University of Kent. This would be sufficient for most folks, but during her re-evaluation of life, Ms Thomas harks back to her more athletic days and vigorously scratches a long-standing sporting itch: to compete professionally in tennis and become a world-ranked player. She undertakes to do this at the age of 41 having abandoned tennis 27 years earlier.
Most people would content themselves with joining the local tennis club, but Thomas has a dream and she’s intent on following it to see how far she can go.
Naturally enough, there are doubts and setbacks, but the author displays remarkable tenacity as she attempts to work her way up the over-40s pro tennis ladder. Such determination is admirable and, as she faces yet more challenges – predictable ones, including exhaustion and fitness, as well as the unexpected sort: traveland dieting, readers find themselves rooting for her.
Almost inevitably, one begins to wonder how far Thomas could have gone on the pro circuit had she not stopped playing at the age of 14, but our heroine doesn’t entertain such matters, preferring instead to navigate her way to the finals of Seniors Wimbledon and a series of nailbiting contests.