A glass of bubbly in hand, a character of a certain age who does what she wants, and a couple of cute dogs. This book held a lot of promise and certainly did not fail to deliver.

Franny Calderwood keeps to herself with only her two dogs, Whisky and Soda as her companions. She likes her own company enjoying the chance to paint, walk along the beach and drink when she feels like it. When a family moves in next door, she’s wary of the single mother who juggles a grumpy teenage daughter, Dee and an exuberant eight-year-old boy, Josh. It doesn’t take long before Franny is reluctantly drawn into their lives.

Little by little we learn what’s behind Franny’s bravado and independence when we discover the loss of her beloved husband from a road accident some years earlier. The family next door draws Franny out of her self-imposed isolation little by little not without some disasters along the way.

The themes of grief and loss are beautifully handled as the story slowly unfolds taking the reader into Franny and the family’s world, one ordered and the other chaotic.

Franny is quite a character, talking to the photos of her dead husband, cooking gourmet meals, painting masterpieces and of course drinking a lot more than she should. You can’t help but love her as well as feel her loss and what she is doing to herself. The dogs are charmers as is Josh who is truly a star in his own right. The child’s innocence and energy is infectious causing the reader to love him as we watch Franny fall for this small boy.

This novel is sad, funny as well as moving. With an additional bonus that it’s set in Melbourne and the places Franny visits are almost my backyard – what more could I wish for?

Get this one and lie on the beach with a gin and tonic and you’ll be happily transported.

It’s often been said by friends and family that I don’t have a sporting bone in my body. There is, however nothing wrong with my appreciation of history particularly when it comes to women’s place in it. And I was delighted to pick up a book about the first female cricketers in Australia and more specifically in my home state of Victoria.

Bowl the Maidens Over helps us understand how women came to play what was originally known as a man’s game. Yet as a man’s game there’s no physical barrier for a woman to play. I have been known to play the game with men and although I have no real talent, I can bowl, bat and throw the ball, well perhaps not terribly well. I can also appreciate the strategy and of course the thrill of being on a winning side.

In fact, whenever women have made the initial attempts to play a man’s game there has always been opposition and derision. Who can forget that not long ago— read within the last ten years —when women’s football in Australia was greeted with great uncertainty? Indeed, the first sold-out match with a crowd outside the stadium floored the male dominated organisers. The innuendo and vitriolic comments on social media platforms could only be described in the sea of positive comments as vile and nasty.

Not much has changed since a group of women in 1874 played an exhibition cricket match to raise funds for charity. Where did they play? In the town of Sandhurst, now known as Bendigo. It was a match attended by thousands and soon after the initial praise, some media whipped up a storm about how unladylike these women were, describing their attire rather than their skill. Oh goodness, what a shock it must have been when ‘they paraded their ankles to the public gaze’ or engaged in ‘an unwomanly game.’

This small delightful volume packs a punch of history giving us a brilliant snapshot of an unknown group of pioneering women who dared to take on a sport with skill and talent. Zedda-Simpson does a fantastic job of weaving the narrative around the media’s debate about the match. Although we don’t really know how the women felt about the attention, the author gives us an insight by revealing the flurry of forthright and entertaining letters to the editor.

A really good read even if it does make you feel indignant about how far we have still yet to go.

Check it out. Bowl the Maidens Over