From dancing with Patrick Swayze to writing a bestseller
Meet local author Julia Boggio. Plus: Get your tickets for Wimbledon's ice rink, learn how to make pizza and sample some fancy wines.
Hello Wimblers — welcome back. I hope that everyone is having a fine morning. Thank you to those of you who shared last week’s edition, please keep the momentum going and click that button below.
The theme of this week’s edition is all things literary, seeing as BookFest started on Wednesday. We have an interview with local author Julia Boggio about her book series, The Photographers, and how dancing with Patrick Swayze on The Oprah Winfrey Show changed her life. We also have another segment on which local authors to look out for at this year’s festival.
But if literature isn’t your thing, don’t you worry. We’ve still got your usual recommendations bursting with variety and opportunities, from art exhibitions to Halloween golf parties. And, as ever, we’ve got you covered with your roundup of local news snippets.
Get in touch with questions, ideas or leads — zak@thewimble.com
Happy reading!
News snippets 🗞
⛸️ Tickets for Wimbledon and Merton’s only ice rink this winter have gone live. Wimbledon Quarter’s indoor 20m x 14m sq ft ice rink will be twice the size of last year’s, with tickets costing £11.99 for children and £14.99 for adults. The rink opens on the 16th of November and closes on the 5th of January. Wimble readers can get 15% off on tickets with the unique code “TheWimbleReader15” — or click on this link here and check out further details here.
🎾 AI will replace line judges at next year’s Championships. Human officials are set to be replaced by electronic line calling (ECL) on all 18 of Wimbledon’s courts. Whilst the move might seem controversial to some, others see it as a step towards more reliable decision making. Read the full piece in The Times to get all of the details and reactions from the world of tennis.
🏡 Merton Council is expected to get the go ahead this week to build the borough’s first new council homes in 40 years. Cabinet is expected to green-light the project, inviting construction firms to build 93 new properties. The homes will be built at Elm Nursery Car Park, Mitcham; Raleigh Gardens Car Park, Mitcham; Land at Canons, Madeira Road, Mitcham; and Farm Road Church, Morden. According to the press release from Merton, the homes will be “modern, comfortable and genuinely affordable. Residents are set to save money on their bills through the homes’ energy-efficiency standard, known as Passivhaus.”
🎛 Wimbledon hosted its very first electronic music open mic night last month. Lucida Records, founded by Darren Laurence, brought some synth to Wimbledon Library with SW19’s inaugural EMOM. We featured Darren in one of our interview segments a few editions ago — check it out here. You can also peruse Lucida Records’ Instagram for videos and pictures of the night.
🌲The Wimbledon Common Nature Club met again last Sunday with “Trees” being this month’s topic. The children were led around the common by Sarah Webley of the South London Botanical Institute as she spoke about how trees play a vital role in producing oxygen and absorbing pollution. Read more about the Nature Club’s meeting here. The next meeting will take place on November 3rd with the topic set as “Fungi Foray”: the world of mushrooms.
Property of the week 🏡
This might be the most opulent property we’ve ever featured. Just look at that garden shot — it’s like something from an Italian romance novel. The whole house looks like the sort of place a retired business magnate might settle down. And with views like that, it’s no wonder that this property comes in at £10,000,000. Check out more here.
From dancing with Patrick Swayze to becoming a bestselling author: Meet local writer Julia Boggio ⭐
Julia Boggio has lived many lives. Many people in Wimbledon remember her because she photographed their children. She’s also been a medical copywriter, a viral star (back in the days when going viral meant something) and, most recently, an author. I sat down with Julia to talk about her unbelievable life and how she went from growing up in New Jersey to moving to the UK, eventually becoming a bestselling author of romance fiction. We’re also giving away two signed copies of Julia’s first novel, Shooters — scroll to the end of the interview to see how you can win.
Z: Gosh, I’m not sure where to start. I guess we ought to address the elephant in the room: How on earth did you wind up on Oprah Winfrey’s show?
J: Right, so my husband and I got married in 2005 and we decided to do the famous dance from Dirty Dancing. We didn’t actually upload the video to YouTube until 2007 and we only did it because that was the easiest way for our friends back in America to see the dance. I remember waking up the next day and seeing that we had already got over 200 views, which was a lot back then. So someone from the Metro got in touch and asked to interview us on the phone, which we did. I mean, we didn’t think much about it until the next day. My husband was on the tube — he’d bought a copy of The Times because all of the Metro copies were gone — and he sat down next to this lady who had a copy of the Metro and he said, “Can I switch papers with you?” To which the lady replied, “Why?” And then my husband said, “Because that’s me.” They’d done this whole spread on us and our dance. After that, it sort of snowballed and we went on BBC and ITV and a whole variety of shows.
And where do Patrick Swayze and Oprah come in?
So the hype started to die down and my husband and I used our small spoils from the whole thing to take a trip to Greece. I remember landing and turning my phone on and seeing that I had a message from the producers of The Oprah Winfrey Show asking if we could go on the next week. Oprah was doing a whole segment on YouTube because she’d just discovered it; she had a skateboarding dog on, Paul Potts and the guys who started YouTube. They flew us out to Chicago and told us to just relearn the first half of the dance. We’re not natural dancers, by the way … especially my husband [laughs]. So we get there and Oprah calls us up on stage and we start dancing and then suddenly the audience goes crazy. I turn around and Patrick Swayze is walking towards me and he’s like “can I cut in?” to which I’m obviously like “yes!” We danced a little bit and then when I was done my husband yelled, “Patrick, let’s do the lift!” And so my husband launched all 12 stone of himself at Patrick Swayze and they did a sort of mini-lift.
Did you have a chat with Swayze afterwards?
Oh yeah! He was such a lovely guy. He said he was going to call us when he came to London and come over for dinner but of course he never came in the end and passed away about two years after we did the show.
So after you fly out and appear on Oprah, you come back to the UK, back to photography, back to normality. What was that like?
I mean it died down but it still affects my life even now. I was just on Woman’s Hour talking about it. But yeah, I had my photography studio in Merton Abbey Mills and I went back to work.
How did you go from running your own photography studio and business to becoming an author?
Well, my husband quit his job in IT and started a film production company with his friend … as you do. They raised the finances and produced a romance movie I wrote called All Bar Love and, well, it was a really bad film [laughs]. In hindsight, they should have probably done a horror. Anyway, they made the movie and got distribution in Hungary and Russia — there’s probably a Russian somewhere who is a superfan — but then the financial crash came in 2009 and everything sort of went bust. My husband started working with me because he’s the best salesperson I have ever met and we did that for seven years. But then he left the business to return to IT and I had another baby and the whole thing became incredibly stressful.
But what made you want to write a novel?
I’d always wanted to write a book, even back when I worked in advertising. Every great copywriter has a novel in them. So, I had this idea of marrying my experiences as a photographer with my passion for writing and came up with The Photographers trilogy. Nobody was really doing the romance photography niche. I remember going out for coffee with a photography friend of mine and telling her the idea. “Oh, so you want to be the Jilly Cooper of photography?” And then the title just came to me: Shooters. I got started and I closed down my business for good just before the pandemic, which was great timing.
It might have been bad timing but I’m sure writing helped you get through those lockdowns.
Oh, it saved me! That and my Peloton. I started writing the book and then I applied to Curtis Brown’s six-month selective class and got in. That was fantastic. I learnt to read my own work critically, and give feedback. I actually ended up getting my agent through that course.
How was your book received after you published it?
In the first awards season that I entered, both of my books were either shortlisted or awarded first place. Shooters won the Selfies Book Award [an award given for the best self-published book] at the London Book Fair this year. My second book, Chasing the Light, was also shortlisted for the Romantic Comedy Award at this year’s Romantic Novelists’ Association.
You’ve written four books now — what’s next?
Now that I've finished a series, I’m writing a Christmas book, again in the world of photography, about an American woman who moves to the UK to meet her Hugh Grant and ends up falling in love with an American guy. Hugh Grant also comes to her in her dreams to counsel her on dating. I feel Colin Firth had his moment in the Bridget Jones books and now it's Hugh's turn [laughs].
Do you agree that the first novel is the hardest?
And the most autobiographical. Funnily enough, the main character in Shooters starts off as a medical copywriter and becomes a wedding photographer. She has red hair … it's not me. It’s not me! So after my next book, I want to write a series of eight or nine interweaving novels about a group of photographers who meet at university and go on to do different things. One of them will be set in Wimbledon.
And finally, who have been some of your biggest inspirations on your literary journey?
Marian Keyes. I love her. She’s adorable. I love how she’s also so hard to pin down to one specific genre. It’s sort of why I like to deal with different topics in my books: ADHD, PTSD, disabilities or other specific issues. I like to educate and give people a platform in romance novels that we don’t often see. I’m also a big fan of Abby Jimenez. She also tackles different issues. And obviously Jilly Cooper. She’s the queen.
All of Julia’s novels are available to buy on her website and Amazon.
To win a signed copy of Shooters, answer this simple question (keeping it romance themed): which famous author of Riders and Rivals inspired Julia to name her first book about wedding photographers, Shooters?
You can either comment below or send me an email with your answer (zak@thewimble.com) — winners will be chosen at random.
The Wimble’s to do list 🎯
🎃 Halloween Par-Tee at The Golf Groove — join the Golf Groove this Saturday for a Halloween party (costumes encouraged). There will be a DJ, a complimentary Halloween cocktail and some “ghostly nibbles”. Tickets are free but make sure you book your spot here.
Where: The Golf Groove, Wimbledon Quarter
When: Saturday 12th October, 7:00 PM - 11:00 PM
🍕Sourdough Pizza Workshop — making pizza is one of those skills that I naively think I’d be good at, even though I’m probably terrible. Head over to Vallebona’s Vineria wine bar next Wednesday to put your skills to the test. Tickets are £20 and attendees will receive a welcome drinks, a light lunch, tasting samples and recipes. Book your spot here.
Where: Vineria @ Vallebona, Wimbledon Village
When: Wednesday 16th October, 12:30 PM - 2:30 PM
🎨Art Exhibition: A Kaleidoscope of British Art — Ad Lib Gallery is hosting a print exhibition featuring some of Britain’s most formidable artists: Tracey Emin, David Hockney and L.S. Lowrey, to name a few. Each of the artists on show has explored the medium of print and harnessed its unique abilities. RSVP here to join Ad Lib for a private viewing and drinks reception this Friday. The exhibition will be open to the public this Saturday.
Where: Ad Lib Gallery, Wimbledon Village
When: Friday 11th October - Saturday 20th October
🍷Meet the Maker and Wine Tasting: Domenico Clerico and Contero — Wimbledon welcomes two renowned wine makers next week for a talk about the Northwest Italian region of Piedmont, where both of their family-run vineyards are located. There will be six wines to taste as well as traditional Piedmont small plates to accompany your glasses. Tickets are £58 and you can book your spot here.
Where: Vineria Vallebona, Wimbledon Village
When: Tuesday 15th October, 6:30 PM - 9:30 PM
💝 Pink October Morning Tea at APPI Wimbledon — Pink October raises awareness about breast cancer and this month they’re teaming up with the APPI clinic to share conversations, advice and treatment options for breast cancer. Pink Ribbon therapist Olga Hayward will be on site to answer any questions and talk about how the clinic supports women after breast cancer treatment. Check out more details here.
Where: APPI, Wimbledon Village
When: Friday 11th October, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM
The Wimbledon authors to look out for at this year’s BookFest (part 2) 📚
Last week we featured several prominent authors with ties to SW19 and we’re back again this week with several more. Hurrah! Book your tickets here.
Daisy Dunn — The Missing Thread
Author and local resident Daisy Dunn has written a new book spanning 3000 years of ancient history, from the beginning of the Minoan Crete to the death of the Julio-Claudian dynasty in Rome. Dunn’s new book examines the ancient world through the eyes of the women who helped shape it, bringing forth voices and figures who are so often pushed to the margins of history. Her talk at the BookFest will be chaired by Rachel Wang, the co-founder and director of Chocolate Films and a trustee of the National Portrait Gallery.
Ed Conway — Material World
The Economics Editor of Sky News has written a new book all about the power of materials, in which, according to the book’s marketing copy, Ed Conway “travels the globe from the sweltering depths of the deepest mine in Europe, to spotless silicon chip factories in Taiwan, to the eerie green pools where lithium originates - to uncover a secret world we rarely see.” He also happens to have been raised in Wimbledon. Join him in conversation with journalist Stefan Stern as they discuss the hidden battles going on to gain control of the world’s most vital materials: sand, iron, salt, oil, copper and lithium.
Seji Hong — Korean Made Easy
Join Seji Hong, who hosts her famous supper club in Wimbledon, and Su Scott as they discuss Korea’s vibrant food culture, identity, immigration (Europe’s largest Korean community is in South London) and how the flavours and textures of food can reconnect us to our heritage.
Question of the week 🔍
Last week I asked you which famous actors — whose credits included Dorian Gray, The Chronicles of Narnia and The Punisher — is an alumnus of King’s College School, Wimbledon. The answer: Ben Barnes.
Q: Which current Conservative MP running in the leadership race was born in Wimbledon?
You’re up to date 👋
Thank you for reading today. I hope you enjoyed the edition. As ever, reach out to zak@thewimble.com with any ideas, stories or possible features. Send in your photos of the week, comment below and share this post by clicking on the red button. Oh, and don’t forget to recommend The Wimble for your chance to top our leaderboards and win some prizes. See you next week!
Really fantastic edition ! Fun and informative. Packed with good information about all things Wimble 👍