The sportswomen who inspired me by Annelise Gray, author of Circus Maximus: Race to the Death

Today, I hope I wouldn’t have such a childish reaction. But I am still hopelessly addicted to sporting drama of all forms, a passion that began in childhood when I learned that if I wanted to watch TV with my family, I was going to have to get used to a viewing diet rich in cricket, rugby, golf and American football. I’m not and never have been a great sportswoman myself. But I have always been a keen reader and for me, following a tennis match or watching the downhill skiing at the winter Olympics conjures many of the feelings you have when you’re reading a gripping book. You invest in the characters, you get caught up in their quest and you pledge to stay with them to the end of their journey, whatever the outcome may be.

My Circus Maximus series of books for children and young adults tell the story of a young Roman girl called Dido who has to fight to achieve her dream of being allowed to compete in the all-male sport of chariot racing. In writing them, I’ve come to appreciate how important it was for me to have female athletic icons when I was growing up, women whose competitive spirit and determination to succeed, often against the odds, inspired me in ways I didn’t realise at the time. Women like Steffi Graf – still the only tennis player, male or female, to have achieved the Golden Grand Slam of winning all four majors plus an Olympic title in a single year. Or Kelly Holmes who I cheered on so many times only to see her run out of the medals near the finish, before eventually she won two golds at the Athens Olympics in 2004.

But my greatest inspiration was a fourteen-year-old girl called Velvet Brown. I met her in the pages of a book called National Velvet, about a young girl who wins a horse in a village raffle