Clare Balding, presenter of Good Morning Sunday, will be visiting Berkshire this Friday Ray Burmiston/BBC
One of TV and radio’s most popular sportscasters will be switching from the race track to more sedate world of some of Berkshire’s best bookshops this Friday.
Clare Balding, who also presents Good Morning Sunday on BBC Radio 2, has released a new book, Walking Home: My Family and Other Rambles, and to celebrate she will be signing copies at Chapter One bookshop from 10.30am and then from 1pm at The Hungerford Bookshop. Entry is free, but Walking Home must be purchased from the bookshops.
Walking Home: My Family And Other Rambles was published last week and is, as Clare explained in a Twitter Q&A, “a celebration of walking, of life and love. It’s funny, sad in parts, positive and I hope uplifting”.
In the same Q&A, organised by publishers Penguin, Clare revealed that the book was inspired by Dawn French.
She wrote: “A few years ago I read Dawn French’s ‘Dear Fatty’ and thought – there’s an interesting memoir format so I adapted her idea of letters into different animals and for this book, different walks to give me a structure.”
Clare has grown up with animals always around her: she admits that she “used to know the geography of the UK only by racecourses”.
But in 1999, she was approached to present a radio programme about walking. The result was Rambling and since then, the talented broadcaster estimates that she has covered 1,500 miles of footpaths, with historians, geologists, twitchers, botanists and poets.
Walking Home: My Family And Other Rambles is an opportunity for Clare to combine both walking with her family. As she said in a blog post: “My brother Andrew and I are determined to conquer the Wayfarer’s Walk, a route which runs past the family stables Kingsclere. What could possibly go wrong?”
Now you’ve got the chance to find out – just turn up on Friday to meet Clare and buy a signed copy of Walking Home.
Walking Home is published by Penguin at £20 and is out now.
Chapter One is in Woodley’s main shopping precinct.
The Hungerford Bookshop is in Hungerford’s High Street.
Clare Balding’s website can be visited here.
Last modified on Tuesday, 16 September 2014 09:43
