This is Not Your Great-Great-Great Granddaughter’s Roller Derby
“The truth is,
we have always been competing against one another. To be prettier, more
accomplished, better-dressed. To be the most marriageable. And though
none of
us dare say it, this new contest is so much more fun.”
Fishnets,
knee-pads and girls called Bette Noir or Babe Ruthless - the world of roller
derby isn’t exactly your average setting for historical fiction. But when
women’s writing website For Books’ Sake teamed up with the London Rollergirls and announced they were putting out an anthology of short stories about
my favourite sport, I found myself wondering if I could bend the rules a little
- and as any rollergirl worth her salt knows, it doesn’t count if you don’t get
caught.
As For Books’
Sake’s resident historical fiction expert, I’m a lot more comfortable with corsets
than crash helmets and having skated with the London Rollergirls briefly, I
decided that writing about it would be a slightly safer way of enjoying the
thrill of the track (a theory disproved by a rickety desk chair and a hot cup
of tea). When I realised that the 1860s saw a craze for rollerskating, I couldn’t resist imagining exactly what
would have happened had a few bored young ladies decided to swap paying calls
for outpacing each other on the track.
Beneath the
veneer of civility, Victorian women were plagued by many of the same concerns,
hopes and rivalries as women today. Why give someone the cut direct when you
can booty block her using her own bustle as leverage?
Transplanting
the most riot grrl of sports to the nineteenth century
wasn’t without its challenges. One of my favourite things about roller derby is
the inventive team names, but whilst the LRG have the Suffra-Jets and the
Ultraviolent Femmes, finding something period-appropriate was a little harder.
Paying homage to two of my favourite Victorian authors - who, let’s face it,
would totally be rollergirls if they were alive today - I came up with the Currer Belles and the Northanger Abbesses and, before
long, rival gangs of bored débutantes were ready to do battle with each other.

A writer in
1890s women’s cycling magazine The Wheelwoman describes it:
“What enjoyment
to a cramped and warped woman’s life is the whirl of the wheel ... by raising
the thoughts in gratitude alone the household cares and drudgery, it gives a
woman for one brief while the chance to rejoice in the feeling of liberty and
delight in her own strength.”
Derby
Shorts was released into the wild on Monday with my contribution leading the pack,
and any fears I had that my Victorian vixens might seem out of place next to
Magda Knight’s rollerblading assassins or Kat M. Grey’s ballerina gone bad were
allayed by a lovely reception. One reviewer called it “the best piece of
Victoriana I’ve read in a long time”, which I’m thinking of putting on my
business cards or at least in my next query letter. The thing about roller
derby is that there’s a place for everyone, whether you’re a rock chick in
ripped hotpants or a society lady in the 1860s.
Kaite
Welsh is a journalist, author and failed rollergirl. She writes a
monthly column on historical fiction for For Books' Sake, her fiction
has been nominated for several awards and she once skated face first
into a brick wall.
Labels: Derby Shorts, guest author, Kaite Welsh, Victorian fiction