Rocky’s adventures at the Women’s World Cup have unfolded in real time, with readers voting on where the story goes

Whatever happens to the Lionesses against Norway on Thursday night, a dramatic finale will follow for one Englishwoman at the World Cup – and thousands of young readers cannot wait to find out how she wraps up her adventures in France. On the 65th anniversary of Roy of the Rovers making his comic debut, the fictional adventures of his sister Rocky at the tournament in France are combining football and reading in a new, exciting narrative form which has encouraging literacy at its heart.

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The Roy of the Rovers strip made its debut in Tiger comic in 1954 and ended in 2001, with Roy as owner of Melchester Rovers. In 2016 Rebellion, the publishers of 2000AD, Britain’s long-running and most zarjaz comic, purchased the rights. They wanted to reboot the character and did so successfully in 2018 as a 16-year-old starting over in a series of graphic novels and books alternating between formats to tell one, flowing story.

The books were written by Tom Palmer and the graphic novels by Rob Williams. Both writers were acutely aware the series had to be brought up to date. They wanted Roy to have a sister and for her to be a player and so Roxanne or Rocky of the Rovers was born.

Palmer has been a successful, professional author of children’s fiction for 11 years and published 48 books. He has worked extensively with the National Literacy Trust using football-related fiction to promote reading.

For the men’s World Cup in South Africa, he wrote a series of “live” stories with an instalment every day, published free by the Literacy Trust. It was hugely popular and this year, with Rocky already successful in the reboot, she has been the lead in a 10-part adventure, alongside Roy and coach Ffion as they follow the Lionesses, of which the final chapter will be released on Friday morning.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Rocky’s story has evolved in real time on the National Literacy Trust website. Photograph: Lizzie Coan/Lisa Henke

This has been a labour of love for Palmer. “I struggled a lot with reading when I was younger,” he explains. “I was intimidated by it and my mum knew I struggled, so she got me reading match reports and magazines like Shoot and comics like Roy of the Rovers. Football made me a reader, which made me a writer.”

What he has created for this World Cup and is free on the National Literacy Trust website is a splendid yarn that evolves in real time as the tournament progresses and one where, uniquely, children have had the chance to vote on where the story goes.

What began then as an adventure of teens abroad following football has developed into one with a ghost/crime element as requested by the thousands of eight- to 14-year-olds who have devoured it. Being written live it also reflects real events and has a modern agenda old Roy would have found unrecognisable.

As the villain of the piece reflects on the elbowing and spitting in the England-Cameroon game, he finds it distasteful only because it was not “ladylike”, which makes Rocky furious.

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“Spitting and elbowing people in the face was horrible. She knew that. But it was equally horrible if men did it as if women did it. This man. She loathed him now. Ladylike? Really?”

Palmer admits the live concept sounds unusual but that kids have lapped it up. “It can be a bit bonkers but it works,” he says. “The children really love it, because they can’t believe that they can read a story that was written in the last 24 hours; they think all stories were written centuries ago.”

Rocky, Palmer also hopes, may represent a fundamental shift in children’s fiction, similar to the one seen in the extraordinary rise in popularity of the World Cup. “As a father of a girl it was a real struggle to find anything for her that wasn’t about ballet or riding horses,” he says. Having also published an award-wining book about a girl fell-runner he sees it is a landscape that is slowly changing.

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The World Cup, the Lionesses and Rocky are riding a wave that is leaving football’s dinosaurs behind. “There is a definite momentum – it’s fantastic,” says Palmer. “You don’t hear those voices of scorn and dissent as much as you used to. For the young generation who are reading this story, seeing people involved in women’s sport, they will see it as normal.”

Rocky will be at the heart of a new book in the Roy reboot series and there may be more to come from France. The story arc concludes on Friday but Palmer promises that if England make it through, two extra chapters will follow. A prospect which will delight fans of the Lionesses, and of Rocky, who will be ecstatic to find herself at least at a semi-final.