Clare Balding

Now she’s rapidly approaching national treasure status – up there with Brighton’s Des Lynam in the sports broadcasting hall of fame.

Widely regarded as the best companion over summer 2012, taking to every discipline with the same ease and enthusiasm that saw her successfully turn her hand to the sport no one in the BBC seemed to love, rugby league, she has staved off Olympic comedown by realising another dream.

Her debut book, My Animals And Other Family, was published on September 13.

She says it’s an autobiography, she says, but it has a narrative similar to something one would find in fiction.

“It’s episodic,” she tells The Guide ahead of a couple of local appearances to meet fans and sign copies.

“It’s not an autobiography in the traditional sense. It’s more an adventure story narrated by episodes in my life.”

She’s always wanted to be a writer, ever since she studied English at Cambridge University.

Despite becoming the face of the BBC’s racing coverage, lead presenter for winter and summer Olympics coverage, plus stints presenting Countryfile, Crufts, Sport and The British on BBC Radio 4, she says writing the book was the most important thing she has ever done.

Royal encounters

“Writing is a really permanent thing, it’ll be around for years and years. TV and radio is over as soon as the event is finished, whereas this will stay.

“And readers pay good money to read it. You read books in bed when you’re feeling down, so a writer can connect in a way that is very different.”

She wants the quality of writing to be appreciated. She says being honest is the best way.

“It needed to be me and my voice – that was pretty important.

“You reveal so much of yourself.

“There was a lot I needn’t have put in, but you have to give something otherwise I could have written fiction.”

My Animals And Other Family covers the first 19 years of her life.

She included some problematic episodes but there has been no negative reaction from her family or anybody in it.

“I could have left out the whole getting suspended from school for shoplifting part but these things are part of what makes me.

“Things that happen to you when you are 12, doing something daft like that, it stays with you.”

The book reflects the struggle we all have to get our parents’ attention or to fit in.

“Those stages where it’s a square peg in a round hole and you don’t know why you don’t fit in, it’s your fight for your voice and independence, and for me it is set in this backdrop of a fairly unusual world of racehorses.”

As one of the few openly gay presenters with a national profile, Balding believes she has a responsibly to champion gender equality.

“I think I infused the book with more feminism deliberately because I felt braver about it after reading Caitlin Moran’s How To Be A Woman.

“We are all ashamed of saying I am feminist and we shouldn’t be. Everybody should be a feminist.”

She decided now was a good time to write because she can look back at her unusual childhood with a bit of perspective.

Her father was a champion racehorse trainer and she grew up with more than 100 thoroughbred racehorses, mares, foals and ponies.

At 11 she was plonked on Mill Reef (winner of the Epsom Derby, King George VI and Prix de l’Arc de Triomph) when he was recovering from a broken leg.

As a girl she met the Queen.

“I watch my nephew now and when you meet the Queen as a child it’s odd. I know when he met her, he said, ‘Why aren’t you wearing your crown?’

“You have this image of the Queen, then you meet the person and there is a chance you can’t understand how it’s the same person.”

Though animals figure heavily – “I had spent most of my childhood thinking I was a dog, and suspect I had aged in dog years” – she says people who don’t like animals say it is an engrossing read.

“I took a lot of trouble to write it as a good satire with dramatic scenes and dialogue. It’s a bit like a James Herriot rather than usual biography. It’s got that dramatic edge.”

After working hard to make a living purely for selfish means, Balding now believes she has the chance to make an impact that will last longer than her career. The aim is to get more girls to play sport and give people confidence about their body image.

“It’s nice doing signings because I’ve had a lot of people saying, ‘I came out. Clare Balding is gay so it doesn’t matter, does it?’ Everyone needs a role model.”

She signs off and admits the purple patch is continuing.

“I’ve been on a run since the Paralympics with the book tour so I still feel the adrenalin.

“This was the summer of my life. It started with the opening ceremony of the Olympics and carried on. There were no big disasters, only a couple of dodgy weather days during the Paralympics, and we saw London at its best and Britain at its best.”

And when can we expect the next chapter in Balding’s life story?

“Never, if my mother has anything to do with it!”

• City Books, Western Road, Hove, from 12.30pm to 1.30pm, Saturday, September 29. Free. Call 01273 725306
• Waterstones, North Street, Brighton, from 2pm to 3pm, Saturday, September 29. Free. Call 0843 2908181