Chapter 1: When Mary met Spencer, a Serialised Tennis Novel
The bearded hunk of a man Sir Spencer Gore. His muscular Herculean legs obscured by those opaque white trousers made me swallow with a strange sense of intense obsession. The match lasted only 48 minutes, but my god! Those were the best 48 minutes of my entire 1877 summer… I had to meet him and I did. He took me to his cottage on the common, and he showed me his collection of antique coins from ancient Roman times. He advised me to invest in a metal called tin at the exchange, and shared with me the secret of tin… That it was called tenn in Swedish, the inspiration for the naming of the racquet sport. His knowledge of high culture made me quiver. I told him, “Give me a baby Spencer” and he responded “the brigadier is ready to make his move” and it was all over in the space of just over 6 minutes and 23 seconds. I never saw him again after that brief moment of spontaneous tennis, but I carried his baby for 9 months. I gave birth to a wonderful baby boy in 1978, and named him James.
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