- Clare Balding

Pastures New

By Clare Balding

The delightfully down-to-earth debut novel from Clare Balding.

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. Then she can finally get back to the carefree life she thought she wanted.

But as secrets surface, Alex finds her heart pulling her in a direction she never saw coming.

Will she pack her bags – or has she landed exactly where she’s meant to be?

Brimming with the warmth and wit that has made Clare Balding one of our best-loved TV personalities, Pastures New is a joyful celebration of new beginnings, community, and the delightful surprises of rural life.

Acclaim for Clare Balding’s books:

‘The reading equivalent of snuggling by the fire with a labrador’The Guardian

‘Funny and moving, James Herriot meets David Sedaris’The Times

‘Forthright, thoughtful, funny … reads like a Jilly Cooper novel’Sunday Times

Author: Clare Balding
Format: Hardback
Release Date: 11 Sep 2025
Pages: 400
ISBN: 978-0-00-860701-2
Price: £20.00, £20.00 (Export Price) , €None
Clare Balding grew up in the countryside surrounded by horses and dogs, and reading everything from Jilly Cooper to Henry James. Her autobiography, My Animals and Other Family, won the National Book Award for Autobiography of the Year and she has also written a series of children’s books set around a girl and her horse.After an English Literature degree at Cambridge she became a journalist. Alongside her award-winning Olympics and Wimbledon broadcasting and coverage of major royal events, Clare hosts her much-loved Ramblings series on Radio 4, taking her across the British Isles exploring its landscape and its storytelling.A passionate campaigner for equality and women’s sport, Clare was awarded a CBE in 2022.

Praise for Clare Balding: -

'A heart-warming story' Jacqueline Wilson -

'Funny and touching' Telegraph -

'Moving, funny and larger than life' Michael Morpurgo -

'Magical, enchanting, riotously eccentric' Daily Mail -

'Simply fabulous' Jilly Cooper -

'Funny and unexpectedly wise' Mail on Sunday -

'The reading equivalent of snuggling by the fire with a labrador' The Guardian -

'So good you just don't want Clare to grow up' Jennifer Saunders -

‘Forthright, thoughtful, funny … reads like a Jilly Cooper novel’ Sunday Times -

‘Funny and moving, James Herriot meets David Sedaris’ The Times -

'You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll want a horse' Caitlin Moran -