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One of the best-known faces on British television, Clare Balding, will be a main speaker at this year’s Guernsey Literary Festival, which will be held from 10 – 14 May.
Clare Balding OBE began her broadcasting career in radio when she left university in 1994, and she has been presenting sports programmes on television since becoming the face of the BBC’s racing output in 1998. She has worked on five Olympic Games, four Paralympics and three Winter Olympics, and has presented racing for the BBC and Channel 4. Her broadcasting skills have won her the BAFTA Special Award and RTS Presenter of the Year Award for her expert coverage of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Clare came to sports broadcasting through her detailed knowledge of horse racing, a sport which was in her blood. Her father Ian trained the hugely successful Mill Reef and her brother Andrew has also had horse-training success. Her uncle, Toby Balding, trained winners in the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup and the Champion Hurdle. Not surprisingly, Clare herself was a successful jockey.
Apart from sports presenting, Clare has hosted walking series Ramblings on Radio 4 since 1999, and in 2010 she also presented Britain By Bike on BBC4 and Crufts for the BBC and More4. She has worked on Britain’s Hidden Heritage and Countryfile, and in December 2012 Clare hosted BBC1’s Britain’s Brightest. Since 2013, Clare has presented The Clare Balding Show on BT Sport and BBC Two, featuring some of the most famous names in sport.
If presenting were not enough, Clare Balding has become a bestselling author; her first book, My Animals and Other Family was published by Penguin in 2012. Based on her childhood growing up in an unusual household, it was published to critical acclaim and went on to win biography of the year at the National Book Awards. Her second book, Walking Home was published in 2014.
In 2016, Clare released her first ever children's book for Puffin Books, The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop. The Guernsey Literary Festival is delighted that Clare will be speaking at St James on Thursday 11 May in what promises be a event of inspirational stories and family entertainment to mark the publication of The Racehorse Who Wouldn’t Gallop. The talk will features stories from her own childhood, surrounded by animals, as well as a special reading from the new book. There will be the chance for more general questions and answers, perhaps about her interest and involvement in sport, after the talk. Later, Clare will be attending the launch party of the festival, where she has been invited to give a short talk of her own choice.
In October 2012, she appeared before an All Party Parliamentary Group on Women's Sport, with Katherine Grainger, Hope Powell and Tanni Grey-Thompson. ‘Women having freedom to play sport leads directly to women having political freedom,’ she said.
On Desert Islands Discs, Clare Balding said that she was ‘a feminist from the age of 10’, anxious to break through barriers put up against women in all walks of life.
More details of the Guernsey Literary Festival speakers so far can be found at www.guernseyliteraryfestival.com. Tickets for all events will be going on sale next month.
