Biographical note

Winner of the BAFTA Special Award and RTS Presenter of the Year Award for her expert coverage of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Clare Balding is one of Britain's leading broadcasters. Since joining the BBC as a trainee sports reporter in 1994, she has covered a range of major live events for the BBC, Channel 4 and BT Sport. Clare has hosted her own interview show, presented factual documentaries and tramped the country for the walking programme Ramblings since 1999. She has twice been named RTS Sports Presenter of the Year, and won a host of other awards for broadcasting and writing. A bestselling author, Clare's 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. Clare has released four children's books based on the relationship between humans and animals. The latest one, The Racehorse Who Learned to Dance, was published in 2019. Clare lives in London with her wife, Alice, their disobedient dog, Archie, and a beautiful cat called Button, whom Archie tolerates with relatively good grace. The Boy Fitz Hammond has worked with various clients including Oxfam, Shelter, BBC, Honda, Microsoft and the Barclays Premier League. His illustrations have also been used by many editorial, educational and publishing clients across a diverse range of titles.