She used to go to Wimbledon BookFest. This year she’s one of the stars

Plus: Disney comes to Wimbledon

Oct 09, 2025

Good morning, Wimblers — I hope that we’re all well. Things have been busy at The Wimble this past week as we gear up for our Christmas print edition. Do keep your eyes peeled for upcoming announcements.

📣 CALL OUT FOR READERS: I’m looking to speak to any of our readers who have ever skated on Wimbledon Common or Park when the ponds have frozen over. (I should add that we do not condone or encourage people to skate on frozen ponds as it’s extremely dangerous — but there is a lovely indoor ice rink in Wimbledon Quarter this Christmas!)

This week we’ve got an interview with Fiza Saeed McLynn, a local resident who spent most of her career as a therapist before publishing her debut novel with Penguin. Fiza is speaking at this year’s Wimbledon BookFest, so make sure to grab your tickets here — and scroll down to read all about how her fantastic book came to be.

We’ve got your usual news snippets, a great property of the week and plenty of recommendations to keep you going over the next ten or so days.

Keep sharing The Wimble with your friends and family; your support means so much to us!

From today’s sponsor (Wimbledon Quarter): It’s not long now until Disney’s The Lion King starts their pop-up in Wimbledon Quarter. From Monday 20 October, you and your children can come along to see the masks and costumes of iconic characters like Rafiki, Zazu, Mufasa, Simba and Nala. These events are entirely free and are such a special opportunity to enjoy the magic of The Lion King up close and personal this half term! Click here to read more about it.

If you want to sponsor an edition of The Wimble to reach our 8,200 local subscribers, just get in touch. We also have a few ad spots left in our upcoming Christmas print edition, which will go out to 20,000 local households.

News snippets 🗞

🚨 A Mitcham man who attempted to steal £50,000 worth of goods from Elys in Wimbledon has been jailed. Gerard Hoskins, 47, pleaded guilty to burglary in April this year. On Sunday 27 April, police officers were called to Elys at around 6.30am. Hoskins broke into the department store via a display window before filling his bags with perfumes, sunglasses and aftershaves. He was arrested whilst trying to escape. He was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment (suspended for two years) on Wednesday 27 August. Read what Detective Sergeant Ben Christmas had to say in Your Local Guardian here.

🎉 Fans of Percy Pigs can relax once more as Wimbledon Quarter’s M&S reopens next Monday. I, for one, am very excited. I can finally get my New York Deli sandwiches for lunch again! I’ve also heard that there’s going to be a six-metre-tall inflatable Percy Pig outside of the Quarter by the M&S entrance for all of you who want to snap a photo with the beloved character.

⚽️ AFC Wimbledon forward Osman Foyo has been handed a five-month suspension for 252 breaches of betting rules. Foyo admitted to the charges and has also been handed a cash fine. He has been banned for one month, with the other four months being suspended. Foyo, 21, who joined The Dons in January, made the bets on matches between October 2023 and March 2025. He will be unavailable until 2 November.

🚝 All lines out of Waterloo were closed on Friday after an “emergency incident” occurred between Woking and Wimbledon. The situation caused chaos for commuters trying to get home from Central London. Network Rail Wessex released a statement saying that all electricity powering the trains had to be turned off due to the incident. Let us know in the comments below if you were affected and how the situation developed.

Property of the week 🏡

I’m not entirely sure what’s happening here, but I like it. This uber-modern new-build home comes with three bedrooms, exposed brick walls, and some sought-after off-street parking. To me, the outside looks more like a Hackney art gallery — which is great if Hackney art galleries are your thing. But what does this neo-haute-bohemian pad cost? Just under £1.1m. Who says cool is cheap? Check out more pics here.

The Wimble’s to-do list 🐧

🐧 Well Done, Mummy Penguin: Mummy Penguin is off to find a fishy dinner for her family in the cold, harsh Antarctic landscape. Daddy and Little Penguin look on with bated breath as she braves the icy waters, climbs the dangerous cliffs and squeezes past some sleepy seals. This is a children’s play all about family bonds and incredible parents. Not one to miss! Grab your tickets here.

Where: Polka Theatre

When: Saturday 18 October — Sunday 2 November

🎶 Songs of All Sorts: This is a fundraising event with tunes, titters and torch songs accompanied by some charcuterie boards and good company. Songs of all sorts will be performed by long-time Wimbledon residents and talented artists Pat Abernethy and Dave Marsden – also known as the Isosceles Theatre Company. Tickets are £40 and can be bought here.

Where: The Village Hall

When: Friday 17 October

🍻 Hand in Hand Beer Festival: Whilst it may be Spooky Season, it has also just been Oktoberfest. And that can only mean one thing: beer! Whilst this event is not to do with Oktoberfest, the essence of the festival is still there. Enjoy six days of beer and ale tastings from different breweries, chat with other guests and enjoy a variety of activities. This festival is free to attend and is one for the beer lovers among us.

Where: Hand in Hand

When: Tuesday 14 October – Sunday 19 October, 4–10pm

🐕‍🦺 Doggy Brunch at the Rose & Crown: This is the perfect event for our readers who have furry little friends. Sit back and chill out as your dogs do the same. The brunch is in aid of the charity Dogs for Good. Click here for more details and bookings.

Where: Rose & Crown

When: Wednesday 22 October, 10am — 2pm

🐖 Iberian ham carving masterclass: Famed restaurateur Brindisa is coming to Wimbledon to give you a masterclass in jamón carving. James from Brindisa will demonstrate carving a full leg of melt-in-the-mouth, acorn-fed ham with some fabulous Spanish wine alongside. This is a free event!

Where: Jeroboams, Wimbledon Village

When: Friday 24 October, 4pm

🦉 Late Autumn Bird Walk: Take a stroll along the common with a local volunteer bird expert to spot some beautiful wildlife and hear some birdsong. Bring waterproofs because the walk will cover different terrains (and summer is very much over). And bring your own binoculars if you have some.

Where: The Ranger’s Office, Wimbledon Common

When: Sunday 19 October, 7.45am

‘You can’t have grief if there’s no love, and you can’t have love if there’s no grief’: In conversation with local author Fiza Saeed McLynn 🎠

Fiza Saeed McLynn’s parents moved back to the UK from Karachi when Fiza was just two years old. They first settled in Southfields before relocating to Wimbledon when Fiza was eight. After reading History at Oxford, Fiza had a brief spell in finance before spending the following 12 years as a complementary therapist helping the bereaved. But after losing her father 13 years ago, Fiza decided on a career change; she decided to write a book. Utilising the seemingly endless free time during the pandemic, Fiza began to write her debut novel, The Midnight Carousel. Even as she wrote the book, Fiza never imagined that it would be published by Penguin, nor did she envisage herself centre stage at this year’s Wimbledon BookFest — a festival she has been attending since its inception. I sat down with Fiza this week to discuss everything from grief and love to family history and the magic of a carousel.

The Wimble: Let’s start with the themes of your new book. What’s it really all about?

Fiza: Grief is the main theme. When I started as a therapist, I didn’t set out to help my clients with grief; I just set out to help my clients. But what I found is that basically every client who came to me was dealing with grief in one way or another. People process grief differently. In my book, pretty much every character is going through some form of grief. Gilbert, who is the character that starts the novel, has lost his wife and son, and he’s plunged into this state of extreme grief. And then you have Maisie, who is also experiencing grief, but for her it’s been shoved to the back of her mind, almost in her subconscious.

What made you want to write this book?

I lost my father in 2012 and spent the following three years in a profound state of grief. At the same time, many of my clients were grieving. I thought it would be really useful to write a self-help book, but I very soon realised that my skills do not lie in the self-help genre. The self-help book that I wrote just wasn’t very interesting. But as a part of my therapy, I always told stories to my clients. I think stories and myths are so human; through them we can relate to our emotions, our issues, our lives. From Shakespeare to Greek myths, storytelling is a very human way to convey messages which are then taken onboard. So I switched from self-help to writing a story.

The idea for this book came to me in 2015, but I didn’t know the first thing about writing a novel. And I was also just too busy. I’d stopped working as a therapist and had started a doggy daycare business. Then came Covid, and you could no longer walk dogs. So I had all this free time on my hands for the first time in my life, and I decided to start writing the novel properly. So I read the first chapter of 50 novels to teach myself how to do it. I realised, through that process, that it’s the voice that makes a novel great.

The book is set in 1900 and 1920, with both parts featuring the same carousel. Why did you make a carousel the book’s linchpin?

It’s two things, really. As a child, I was obsessed with the funfair — the same one that comes to Wimbledon Common every year. I went every summer and practically every day. I couldn’t get enough of it. And the ride that I was always drawn to was the carousel. There’s a sort of magic to it. You have these beautiful horses, and there’s this transportive element to riding around on them — the lights, the colours, the craftsmanship. So I’ve always been gripped by the carousel. But there’s also something symbolic in it: you journey round and round, up and down, much as you do in life. And grief works like that too; it works in waves. Grief is a cycle. So my novel begins in Paris with Gilbert crafting a carousel for the Exposition Universelle, and he names one of the horses after his late son. Fast-forward 20 years, and the carousel ends up in Chicago, where Maisie is living. And both characters are dealing with grief, with life’s ups and downs, and the carousel encapsulates all of that.

Book cover of The Midnight Carousel by Fiza Saeed McLynn

You’ve lived in Wimbledon almost all of your life. What do you think this area has given you, and what have you given it?

Wimbledon is where my heart is. This area has given me so much. My son and daughter went to school here, I went to school here, and I visited the library here countless times as a little girl. It’s interesting how it’s changed, too. I’m mixed race, and when I was growing up it wasn’t always that easy. It was unusual back then to see people like me or my sister walking into a cafe like the one we’re in now. But I feel very safe in Wimbledon. I feel protected here. And it’s a very creative place. Just look at the BookFest for an example. It’s one of the best book festivals in the country!

Is it strange, as a local, to go from an audience member to a speaker at the BookFest? Is it strange to go into the bookshops you’ve visited for years and to see your books on the shelf?

I used to pop into the bookshops from as young as I can remember, and I’d see all the books with the little penguin on them. Now that’s me! My book is in Waterstones with a little penguin on it. So to see myself through my childhood eyes makes me emotional in ways I can’t really describe. It’s easy to forget to take stock of what you’ve accomplished sometimes, so I have to keep reminding myself to do that. It’s just that all of this feels so surreal.

Fiza is speaking alongside Emma Cowing, author of The Show Woman, about both of their novels, their creative journeys, strong female characters and life outside societal expectations. Their event takes place at 5pm on Saturday 18 October — tickets can be bought here. Check out Fiza’s author’s page on Penguin’s website to read more about her debut novel and to get yourself a copy. Click here to see all of the other brilliant talks and events coming up at this year’s BookFest.

Question of the week 🔍

Last week, I asked you which year The Wombles performed at Glastonbury. The answer: 2011 (which is far more recent than many of you guessed).

Q: Which famous author had a son who attended Kings College School?

You’re up to date 👋

Thank you for reading this week’s edition of The Wimble. I hope you enjoyed our interview with Fazi Saeed McLynn — make sure to pop along to as many of the BookFest’s events as you can. And please do check out Disney’s workshops when they arrive this month! (WE WILL ADD THE DISNEY SNIPPET LATER TODAY). Other than that, keep getting in touch, sending in your thoughts and sharing our newsletter. Have a great rest of the week and see you next time!