The Scandalous Ladies Football Club

The Radio 2 Book Club Summer Pick 2026

Meet Minnie Newton – 27-year-old spinster, troublemaker and founder of the first ever women's football club…

London, 1887: schoolteacher Minnie Newton is horrified when her female pupils placidly accept the limitations Victorian society puts on their ambitions and their lives. To show them women can do anything, she places a newspaper ad, seeking women to join a football team.

From a handful of replies, she puts together a motley collection to form a squad that’s keen but mostly hopeless. Soon the women fall in love with the game and decide to play in public and their matches begin to draw big crowds.

But Minnie has a secret and soon all the attention her notorious team is getting starts to threaten the life she has built for herself. Can she toe the line between independence and safety or will the truth about who she is come out…?

A story inspired by real-life Victorian women, who showed the world that women can do anything they put their minds to, even if they are ridiculed for it at first…

PRAISE FOR FRANCES QUINN:

'Another fantastic female-centred historical novel from Frances Quinn' WOMAN & HOME

'An uplifting story of camaraderie and courage' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING

‘An uplifting, warmhearted, glorious romp of a novel where the underdogs triumph and the world is put to rights…Frances Quinn has such a talent for tackling serious historical topics with heart, humour, and humanity.' LOUISE FEIN

'A triumphant, heart-lifting read about friendship, resilience, and rewriting the rules.’ NIKKI SMITH

‘Frances Quinn remains top of the historical fiction league with this feminist, feelgood page-turner’ PENNY BATCHELOR

‘Packed with wit, humour, and warmth. Frances Quinn scores again.' EMILIA HART

'This funny, heart-warming story examines friendship, female power and what it really means to be an independent woman in Victorian England.' ELENI KYRIACOU

‘Full of heart and humour … a hymn to friendship and a celebration of female power’ NICOLA GILL

‘Frances Quinn is the Sarina Wiegman of historical fiction, producing a winner every time!’ TREVOR WOOD

‘Full of humour, friendship, and wonderful characters that leap off the page’ LOUISE HARE

‘Frances Quinn has effortlessly captured the spirit of an era in this delightful page-turner of a novel' JOANNA GLEN

‘A beautifully written page-turner’ LILA CAIN