AUSTRALIAN MADE
Wives and Girlfriends - Shireen Lolesi (2009)
Angel may look like she's got the dream life, married to rugby league star Drew but behind closed doors their marriage is in trouble. Drew has become moody and withdrawn, secretly indulging in the sex, drugs and alcohol lifestyle that accompanies these feted football players. But Angel is also hiding a secret - an affair with one of Drew's Gladiators teammates which may have lead to the conception of her son Charlie. Written amid real-life football scandals, Shireen Lolesi has said she wrote the book as self-therapy after her marriage breakdown to an NRL rugby league player. While the writing won't score extra points, this story tackles how easily the fame, money and groupies can convert the scrum into scum. It will appeal to those after a sizzling insider's view into the life of a WAG.
Amid the continuing controversy about Australian footballers from all codes being very naughty boys, Shireen Lolesi, the former wife of a rugby league player, has lifted the lid on the lives of WAGs in her first novel, Wives and Girlfriends. Its summary says: "Angel Blakely leads the perfect life. With a handsome husband in the form of a famous rugby league star, a newly decorated million-dollar apartment in Sydney's sought-after eastern suburbs, and a gorgeous baby son, she is the envy of many. But her glamorous life is not all it seems. Beneath the money and the status that go with football at its highest level lies a dark world of alcohol and drug abuse, sexual misbehaviour and violence. As Angel begins to understand the man and the life she's married into, her world begins to unravel around her and soon she herself is contemplating breaking the ultimate football taboo - an affair with one of her husband's teammates." Lolesi reportedly has said she wrote the book as self-therapy after the breakdown of her nine-year marriage to Canterbury Bulldogs player Jamahl Lolesi. She also runs a beauty salon in Sydney.