Clare Balding

Not at all the sort of book that I would normally pick up (celebrity memoirs are usually anathema to me) but I loved this one. It probably helps that I fell in love with Claire Balding during our British summer of sport when she quickly became my favourite presenter of both the Olympic and Paralympic games, and that she has a 2:1 in English from Cambridge University.

Clare comes from a family to whom animals were an integral part of life (her father is a famous horse trainer) and Clare show more reflects this in her autobiography by making one of the many animals she loved growing up a focus of each chapter. It sounds gimmicky but it works really well and details of her life growing up at home, school and university came out of those chapters quite naturally. Sometimes sad, often very funny and always interesting this was an absolute pleasure to read. show less

Alex is approaching forty, discontented with her job and life in London, and single. She has good friends but that's it. Then one day she receives a letter telling her she has inherited a farm in Wales from a man she's never heard of. She goes home for Christmas, her Dad has a stroke and her mother, never the best communicator, will not engage in any conversation about the inheritance. Now Alex is trying to manage a farm that is crumbling around her and build a life in the Welsh show more countryside
Clare Balding always comes across as a 'jolly good person' and that persona is reflected in this novel. It's not the most challenging read, it's utterly predictable (even to the LOL storyline) but it's really good fun. I loved the setting in Wales and the contradiction between the genuine country people and the wannabes, there's lots of interesting bits around farm management and it feels genuine. A light but enjoyable read. show less

I am not much of a reader of autobiographies, but this was a gift, so I gave it a go and enjoyed it much more than I expected to.
Clare doesn't write a chronological tale, but gives each chapter the title of an animal she has known, all dogs or horses and uses that animal as a focus for the chapter. This means the narrative has some chronology, but is not a then-I-did-this and then-I-did this sort of story.
She concentrates on funny stories about herself and her family and happily shows show more herself in a poor light. She led a privileged and happy life and seems to acknowledge that as much as she can. Her life is so different from my own, all pony clubs, stables, large dogs and happy families, so it was interesting to read about her life and I now know much more about racing than I ever did before. show less

Who is Clare Balding & why the heck should any of us care? She's a BBC sports presenter, was an amateur jockey, & grew up with race horses. I still don't really care, but her autobiography is told through her interactions with the more memorable horses & dogs she knew & it was excellent. There were quite a few & they're real animals - people to her (as they are to me), but animal people. She captivated me in the first chapter with our similarities growing up on a farm. She learned to walk show more with the help of her dog & drank out of the same water dish occasionally. (My dogs are all good at eating off my fork & always finish off my milk. They're not really begging, just attentively waiting for me to share.) Kids can do far worse than a loyal dog as a role model. I had one, too.

There was some skipping around in time due to the way the story was presented, but each chapter was well laid out & the animal characters made them hold together well. The joys, love, & loss were very real. From outward appearances, we have nothing in common, yet she is obviously a kindred spirit.

Her father was one of the top race horse trainers in England, even had some of the Queen's horses, so she met a lot of interesting people in intimate detail & had a lot of great riding opportunities, not to mention a love for all things equestrian. Her story provides a great personal view of that life, although I was a bit lost with her education. Their grades & such are far different than ours.

The only downside was her constant references to how her family put her down, yet she never seemed inclined to get back at them. It was a rather ugly thread that seemed too lopsided & undermined the veracity of her story somewhat. Not a huge deal.

If you want the bare facts of who she is now (this book concentrates on her early life into college) the Wikipedia page fleshes it out.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_Balding show less