Showing results by author "Clare Balding" in All Categories

Spending time in nature is good for both our bodies and minds - but with our hectic lives (not to mention the unreliable British weather), it can be hard to get outside as much as we'd like. But fear not: we've selected some of BBC Radio 4's best nature documentaries to transport you to the great outdoors - and encourage you to take your own trip into the wild.

Sometimes home is where you least expect it… Alex has perfected the art of dodging responsibility during her almost 40 years — until an unexpected letter turns her life upside down. She’s inherited a crumbling sheep farm in deepest, wettest Wales. This was not her life plan. Not at all. Now, her closest companion is a grumpy Welsh terrier, she’s speed-reading An Idiot’s Guide to Farming, and her arrival has set the village gossip mill spinning. With the farm near collapse and its community now relying on her, Alex sets out to uncover the truth behind her mysterious inheritance.

Puffin presents the unabridged downloadable audiobook edition of The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop, written and read by Clare Balding. Charlie Bass is a horse-mad nine-year-old who dreams of owning her own pony. So when her eccentric parents announce that they are going to buy a racehorse, Charlie is thrilled. The horse they buy, Noble Warrior, looks the part: strong, fit and healthy. There's just one problem - he won't gallop.

Follow Charlie Bass and her horse Nobel Warrior’s journey in this classic, funny animal story collection written and read by Clare Balding.

Dogcast is, as the name suggests, all about dogs! In this podcast Clare and her Tibetan terrier Archie travel the UK, a nation of dog lovers, to meet dogs out and about. They will walk with dogs, talk about them and to their humans. Big dogs, small dogs, and special celebrity guests’ dogs. It’s a celebration of all things canine! Join Clare Balding and Archie to hear powerful, funny and moving personal stories about the many ways’ dogs transform our lives. Plus expert advice and information about choosing a dog, better dog health, improved behaviour and how to live your BEST life with ...

Life is slowly getting back to normal for Charlie after her reluctant racehorse, Noble Warrior, won the Derby and saved her family from financial ruin. But drama soon returns to Folly Farm when thieves break into the farmyard in the dead of night and kidnap Noble Warrior! With the police baffled and no trace of the prizewinning thoroughbred to be found, Charlie launches her own investigation but is soon distracted by trouble closer to home.

In Clare Balding's family, walking just took too long - she galloped through the countryside and she galloped through life. Then, in 1999, Clare took a call from a BBC producer looking for a presenter for a new radio series. "Do you walk?" she asked. "Well, I walk the dog...." That series, Ramblings, is still going strong - and Clare's caught the walking bug. Now she wants her family to share some of that pleasure. Her and her brother Andrew are determined to conquer the Wayfarer's Walk, a 71-mile route. What could possibly go wrong?

Clare Balding grew up in a rather unusual household. As her father is a champion trainer, she shared her life with more than 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, foals, and ponies, as well as an ever-present pack of boxers and lurchers. As a toddler she would happily ride the legendary Mill Reef and take breakfast with the Queen. She and her younger brother came very low down the pecking order. Left to their own devices, they had to learn life’s toughest lessons through the animals, and through their adventures in the stables.

Who would win in a slow sprint, the Australian Tiger Beetle or the American falcon? Is the sperm whale built to be a great long-distance swimmer or is perseverance her winning attribute? What would a tiger look like in a bikini? Find out all of this and more in the Animal Games, a competition like no other, where the world's most fascinating animals go head to head to become champions in their field. Full of fascinating and surprising facts and motivational takeaways that show even the most understated animals have hidden skills, you can't always judge something by its appearance.