Showing results by narrator "Clare Balding" in All Categories

Author, filmmaker and conservationist Roger Deakin first came to fame with his best-selling book Waterlog, which brought wild swimming into the mainstream and pioneered the 'new nature writing' genre. Published posthumously, his second travelogue, Wildwood, and collected journals, Notes from Walnut Tree Farm, were also hailed as classics.

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.

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.

As well as being one of Britain's best-loved presenters, Clare Balding is also a best-selling author. She joins Elise Italiaander in the Audible Studios to talk about her highlights from the 2016 Olympics and her new book for children, The Racehorse Who Wouldn't Gallop.

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.

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.

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.

Clare Balding looks back at the time the Olympic Games came to London in 1948. Three years after the end of the Second World War, Britain was still gripped by austerity. Rationing was still in force, severe bomb damage was still much in evidence, and no new sports facilities could be built. Visiting athletes were put up in schools and RAF camps. Yet the Games were a resounding success and actually made a profit.

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?