Clare Balding to publish childhood memoirs this September

Sports presenter Clare Balding will be publishing her childhood memoirs later this year.

“My animals and other family” will be available to buy on 13 September.

It records Clare’s childhood growing up on the Hampshire Downs, with a champion trainer as a father (Ian Balding), a household full of dogs and The Queen dropping by for breakfast.

“By the time I was 10 I had discovered the pain of unbearable loss,” said Clare. “I had felt joy and jealousy. Most important of all, I knew how to love and let myself be loved.

“All these things I learnt through animals. Horses and dogs were my family and friends. This is their story as much as it is mine.”

Clare became the face of BBC’s racing coverage in 1998 and has worked across a wide range of sports for television and radio, including at the Grand National and Wimbledon.

She will be presenting coverage from this summer’s Olympics.

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