Transport for Wales don't run the trains from Swansea into London though :(

as featured in Flying the Flag! What a player she was.

I'm so sorry xx

Love this. Glad you're back x

This is what we - us now, the generations before - have always wanted.

And we want more.

Everybody watches women's football.

#lionesses #euros

I can't quite imagine how it must feel to be a child now, who started watching football in 2022, and is used not just to England's success, but to it being taken seriously, to it being valued.

Watching the Lionesses retain their Euro title today was an incredible moment. Having watched them at tournaments for more than 20 years, I sometimes feel like a bit of a relic.

And we must not forget those keeping the pyramid and the talent pathway alive, nor rush to make women's football look like men's, and repeat the errors we've seen so many times there.

And inevitably mistakes do get made. There are short memories in our sport. The women at the very top are thriving now but they still have plenty of challenges to face that their male counterparts don't.

As eyes turned to the future, I'd spent months chronicling pen-portraits of the past, the women whose stories had been overlooked but who needed to be remembered and acknowledged so that mistakes wouldn't be repeated.

Well, it was one of them. The gradual rise, the careful build of professional football for women in England sky-rocketed in 2022, the year in which 'Unsuitable for Females' was released.

People were enthralled by these women and their stories - I remember Claire Rafferty got talked about a lot! But they'd been working so hard for so long, and generations of England teams had travelled to tournaments practically unnoticed. Would this be the turning point?

Ten years ago, I very clearly remember coming up with the idea for the book that became The Roar of the Lionesses. I'd not long been back from the Women's World Cup in Canada, and England's good performance there - finishing third - had taken everyone by surprise.

Thank you! I've emailed them.

Thank you to all the brilliant women whose stories are spotlighted - and to the friends, family, team-mates and coaches who gave their perspectives.

Available now at all good book shops and your preferred online retailer of choice - tinyurl.com/mr2upfxt

Telling the stories of trailblazing women is one of the great honours of my career and I hope this book fills in some more of the many gaps in women's football history.