Florrie: The perfect football love story for fans of the Women's Euros

by Anna Trench

The story of female footballer Florrie and the amazing hidden history of the women’s game come to life in this debut graphic novel about football, friendship and falling in love.

'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

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 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. In Florrie, Anna Trench brings readers a beautifully drawn, evocative and warm-hearted love-song to an unforgettable woman and sport.

'Bright with the feeling of liberation, and the risks and joys of following your heart' SEÁN HEWITT

Charming and incredibly moving' RACHEL RAMSAY

Genres: Historical Fiction, Lesbian

177 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 19, 2025

Reviews

[Alwynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A completely charming, bittersweet story that combines the lost histories of the women who played football just after WW1 with an incredibly-moving, queer love story. It’s a debut graphic novel from English teacher, cartoonist and illustrator Anna Trench – in her spare time she plays for Goal Diggers FC. It opens in the present where a woman is sorting through her recently-deceased great-aunt’s possessions. What she finds uncovers something totally unexpected about her great-aunt Florrie’s past. Trench’s story then shifts back in time to 1919 and Norfolk where Florrie lives with her younger brother and her widowed father an antiquarian bookseller. A chance encounter leads to Florrie becoming a member of a local, women’s football team, something she decides to keep a secret from her family.

Football takes Florrie to London and then to Paris where she meets and falls in love with V. - their relationship allows Trench to recreate Paris’s famous lesbian bar Le Monocle in Montparnasse. Florrie’s experiences highlight the once-flourishing women’s football teams that brought women from vastly different backgrounds together, united by their excitement over the game. A world that came to an abrupt end in 1921 when the Football Association banned women from their pitches, on the grounds that football was far too dangerous and far too strenuous for women. Trench’s b/w illustrations and deceptively-simple style are remarkably effective, evocative and atmospheric. Shortlisted for more than one award, Trench’s book’s received glowing reviews from writers like Alison Bechdel and Seán Hewitt. Highly recommended – even for readers who, like me, aren’t even vaguely interested in football.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Jonathan Cape for an ARC

[Keen Reader · Rating 3 out of 5]

“How can a little group of men in London topple everything we’ve built with just a few words?”

The English FA being shallow, regressive and drunk on power and pettiness?...A patriarchy stubbornly resistant to change, jealously guarding its unearned privileges no matter what reason or logic is offered. So much has changed since the 1920s, obviously I’m joking.

This is an interesting story, which weaves many truths into it to give an idea of the maddening prejudice and ignorance women in football had to endure and battle a century ago, and only very recently are things beginning to change in any meaningful way.

[Immy Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful book

[Abby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Florrie is a soulful and timeless tale of women, love, and women in love. This story offers a glimpse into our older relatives' youth, revealing that they were more like us than we might think. It teaches us that as we grow up, we are less alone than we may ever know.

[Bluebelle-the-Inquisitive (Catherine) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Florrie is a queer graphic novel based on true events. True events about one of the shames of English Football, its sexist ban on women playing post-WWI. With the graphic novel style and spacious formatting, Florrie is a reasonably fast and beautiful read with emotional punch. This was a happy little surprise I found for a reading challenge that I likely wouldn’t have read otherwise. I’m giving it 5🌟 for beauty and balance in story focus.

It centres on the titular Florrie, a young woman living in Norfolk between 1919 and 1925. She works with her father in their antique book shop, looks after her younger brother Francis and on weekends she runs, and runs, and runs. One day, she is invited to join the local ladies' soccer team. So begins her love of the game, introduction to the power of female friendship and eventually her introduction to the young woman who will change everything for her.

I will fully admit this is not going to be for everyone. But you don’t need to be a soccer/football fan to enjoy it; this is for the feminists and non-sports fans too. The only thing that isn’t discussed or explained at all is the scoring format, which is relatively normal, compared to something like rugby or tennis, but not that the scores are always that low. Essentially, it’s just terminology or sport, but to be honest, it wouldn’t have made sense either.

It does a fantastic job of showing the unexpected side plot relating to Florrie’s family. There is a painful tear or choice between romantic love and the want for independence vs familial love, want for safety, and obligation. Anyone who has lived that experience will read it for what it is, although what we experience as daughters in 2025 is nothing compared to the expectations our great-grandmothers experienced in 1925 (especially for only daughters).

On Florrie’s family, her family is the framing. This is the history of Florrie tied to the artifacts her great-grand niece found after her death in 2025. It’s smart framing and I think it is well executed. The ending ties the past and present together, showing how far the female British football scene has come in 100 years. Essentially, from being banned to being a powerhouse.

The illustrations suit the setting, black and white, deceptively simple. There is a mix of fashions, seemingly suiting the period. Not all the story is told in conversation; there are also some page spreads featuring newspapers and transportation to illustrate travel. I do like the mix of composition; it does feel like reading a movie sometimes.

2025 Popsugar Reading Challenge prompt #22 ‘A Book Soccer’. There is more than enough football in this to count. Football isn’t my thing but feminism and women in sport is.

[Theediscerning · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of two halves, to borrow the cliché – this is very much about the birth of women's football, from females working in factories and elsewhere because WWI, to mahoosive charity games raising thousands of pounds – a century ago pounds, no less – to the whole thing being banned; and it's also very much about lesbian love in those days too. Yes, our title character has multiple struggles – against her loving but stuffy book dealer father, with her new-found appreciation for the sport that people still insist is not good for women to play, and of course with her new French belle.

And that's a hiccup for this, for me. Bear in mind I only saw the book – no covers, no blurb – not even that page with the ISBN and copyright details on – but I was not once told how much of this is true. I have no idea, then, if Florrie is sheer fantasy or a real sapphic "soccer" player. I can well believe ad hoc teams were allowed to represent their country on small tours abroad, and that the players had lip-locks afterwards, but for me Flo needed to be either declared a fiction or more overtly based on a particular character from real life. The middle ground is the worst place for her to be. (And she would know that, being a winger.)

Knowing nowhere enough about the veracity of this was, then, for me a problem. Has this author dreamt up Florrie, or the love story side of things – for I know enough to know the football ban was definitely a real event. I assume I ought to fit into the "look, it could have happened and that should be enough" category, but I don't. I certainly see this as three and a half stars – the art wasn't fully my preferred style – but if this was an authentic life story clutched from the dumper of history then probably four is what it deserved. If it's a case of fictional Florrie, then I'd have enjoyed the author showing us real players more, whatever their sexuality.

PS It does seem from further research that Florrie was very much not a real person.

[Doe Is Reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley, however all opinions are my own.

So the reason I wanted to read this is as you all know I love queer graphic novels and genuinely thought this sounded like such an interesting read. Friends, I'm so glad I was granted to read this book. This book INSTANTLY had me in tears. The story was so beautifully written and illustrated and I genuinely read this in less than an hours sitting. This had everything I wanted from a queer graphic novel, such as strong female relationships and powerful women. To see the history of women's football in England was so interesting to read about as I had no idea before this. I genuinely loved the correlation between what was happening to Florrie in real life in regards to her queerness and relationships as well as what was happening to her with her passion of football. This book was honestly very bittersweet and I would 100% recommend reading this with a pack of tissues. I will definitely be getting a copy of this when it's out, and would absolutely recommend this to anyone and everyone who just wants a good, bittersweet queer graphic novel.

[FaithfulReviewer (Jacqueline) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Random House UK, Vintage, Jonathan Cape, the author and NetGalley for a DRC in return for an honest review

What a wonderful joyous story. I love everything about this book. The heartfelt storyline was a joy to read! In fact I didn't want it to end. It left me wondering about the rest of Florrie's life and about what other adventures she may have had.

Anna Trench's literary debut is accompanied throughout by whimsical drawings of Florrie and the footballing adventures she had between 1921 and 1924. Trench intertwines her story around real life events such as the Football Association's 1921 ban on women’s football and how the female footballers of the time had to use their ingenuity in order to carry on playing the game they all loved. A very sweet love story also blossoms between Florrie and a French girl named Vivienne.

A book that will be loved by young and old alike. This would be an especially lovely gift for any young girls wanting to follow in the footsteps of their footballing heroes.

#Florrie #NetGalley

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars (only because it would have been nice to see a little more (if only spot) colour in the story)
I'm not a huge football fan, but I did watch the Women's Euro Cup final back in 2022 and this (self-contained) volume by Anna Trench serves to show how stupid, short-sighted, misogynistic and wholely bombastic the decision by the FA at the end of 1921 was to ban women's football.
This is a brilliant story 'fleshed out' by Anna to tell the story of the narrator's Great-Aunt Florrie and her involvement in women's football just after the WWI, realising it amongst the fallout of that war, the societal strictures and the attendant hurdles that faced all the women who wanted to play football at that time; unfortunately, especially due to the worst elements of social media players today also face hateful, ignorant abuse for wanting to play football.
An engrossing read, that left a tear in my eye at the very end.

[Nicola Richardson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked the format of this book as it makes it more reader friendly for a range of audiences. It tells the story of Florrie as she becomes a footballer in secret at a time when people were turning against the idea of women playing football. There is some suggestion of why, e.g. jealousy of the big crowds the female game were getting. Florrie manages to go to France, giving her father a different reason, and while she is there she meets and begins to fall in love with a French lady. I liked that the main messages of the book were integrated throughout rather than flagged up in a very dramatic way. The story just quietly progresses after Florrie's nephew finds artefacts in the loft and realises how little he knew of her story.

[Andre Landgraf]

it was that burning feeling of racing across frosty grass and icy mud, the grin from her friend alice when they passed perfectly up the wing, the safety she felt in this rectangle to be something she never knew she wanted to be.

and it was the way the other things that crowded in her head fell away for 90 minutes so all she need worry about was what was here, now, between these painted lines

but it was also afterwards, when, flushed and muddy and beer-breathed, they welcomed her in further, as if they wanted her to be a part of this.

tomorrow her calves and quads would ache and her bloodied knees would swell and she'd count down the days until next time.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a phenomenal story, I absolutely loved this! Keen followers of women’s football in England will already be familiar with the infamous FA ban in 1921, but this book brings it to life in a way that shows what it really would have meant to the many thousands of women who joyfully played at that time. The sequence after the ban came in was absolutely stunning.

I’ve read quite a lot of books now about women’s football: auto-biographies, fiction and non-fiction, but I don’t think any have come close to this in capturing the the feeling and what it means for women to play football.

[David Stewart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Florrie is a beautifully drawn graphic novel — every page feels alive. It’s funny in a quiet, clever way, but also completely heartbreaking at times. I loved how exquisitely observed the historical details and sense of place were. It really captures the joy and escapism of playing football, and the devastation when that is taken away. It’s one of those books I finished and immediately wanted to read again.

[Deadly Knitshade · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely thing. Beautifully drawn and gently but powerfully told. Softened my football-reluctant heart. Brilliant work.