Guernsey Press

'Horses can bring out the best in human beings'

Rarely off our TV screens, Clare Balding is fast-approaching 'national treasure' status, but her career could have been very different. As a leading amateur flat jockey she gained championship status before becoming a BBC trainee... and the rest is history. And these days she's added 'author' to her CV...

Published

CLARE BALDING, one of the Guernsey Literary Festival's star speakers, is a woman never far from success.

She is one of Britain's leading broadcasters, knowledgeable and enthusiastic when presenting a whole host of sports and winner of the Bafta Special Award and the Royal Television Society Presenter of the Year Award for her coverage of the London Olympics and Paralympics in 2012.

For Clare, those Olympics were very special. The fact that she made an instant media star of Bert Le Clos, ultra-enthusiastic father of swimming gold medallist Chad Le Clos, was typical of the way she excited her interviewees and her audience.

'London 2012 was the ultimate highlight and to work on the Olympics and Paralympics in my home city will never be topped. I love the big multi-sports events and have enjoyed various Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games as well, but of course I love anything with horses – racing, eventing, show jumping and dressage are all wonderful to cover.'

Her talk in Guernsey, The Racehorse Who wouldn't Gallop, the title of her latest book, will be at St James on Thursday 11 May at 6pm and is sponsored by Investec Bank (Channel Islands).

See today's Guernsey Press for the full interview with Clare plus interviews with Terry Waite and Sebastian Faulks

For the full festival programme, www.guernseyliteraryfestival.com/

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