Review: 'Florrie' by Anna Trench

'Florrie' by Anna Trench

Book blurb:

When Florrie’s great-niece discovers Florrie was a footballer in the early twentieth century, she unearths a secret history both on and off the pitch.

Boxes from the attic contain photos, objects and letters, revealing football games and love affairs in Norfolk, London and Paris. Florrie’s adventures touch on both invented and real events: huge crowds at matches in London and Preston, international fixtures, dances at lesbian club Le Monocle in Paris, and the devastating consequences of the FA's 1921 ban on women's football.

This is a story of self-discovery, friendship and queer love, alongside huge (and little known) historical moments for the women’s game.

Reviews:

'A really great graphic novel... beautifully drawn and very well written' ALISON BECHDEL

'If you put Alison Bechdel's Fun Home in football kit, you might come up with something like Florrie' ZING TSJENG

My 250 word review:

I will admit, I do not care for football.

But… I do like graphic novels. And untold stories, so it didn’t seem like I’d entirely hate it. And Anna Trench, who I saw at the Cape MiniCon, sold it when she spoke about it. So, it was the second of my purchases that day. And spoiler alert – I did not hate it.

‘Florrie: a football love story’ is an unassuming little book with a green cover with a flash of red on the football. And that’s the only colours in it. A hardback at 170 pages, one of the lovely touches is the endpapers which contain motifs from the story – a football scarf, a book, a watch, a snowdrop, a bottle of Chanel no.5…

The delicate black and white illustrations are reminiscent of Lizzy Stewart, with a soft ink and wash feel. The images aren’t constrained into panels, as we follow the story of Florrie, an unconventional girl from an intellectual, upper middle-class family, firstly falling for football, then for a French footballer, Vivienne.

Blending fact: the real history of the women’s game, its success and popularity in the early 1900s before banning by the FA in 1921, with fiction: Florrie’s love story.

It's a really sweet book about young love and following your heart and dreams, but sadly, maybe due to the constraints of the time, Florrie is not able to follow her heart’s true desire to Paris and Vivienne. The final chapter, set in 2025, is genuinely sad.  

Pages from 'Florrie'