Photo credit: Fleur Speet
Sandy Balfour
Agent: Isobel Dixon
Assistant: Sian Ellis-Martin
Biography: Formerly an award-winning television producer, Sandy founded and managed fair trade company Divine Chocolate and is now CEO of the Canon Collins Educational and Legal Assistance Trust.
Sandy is author of the critically acclaimed memoirs VULNERABLE IN HEARTS: A Memoir of Fathers, Sons and Contract Bridge and PRETTY GIRL IN CRIMSON ROSE (8): A Memoir of Love, Exile and Crosswords. He is also author of NURSING AMERICA and I SAY NOTHING (3), based on his X-Philes columns for The Guardian, and A CLUE TO OUR LIVES: A History of the Guardian Crossword.
Visit Sandy’s website.
WHAT I LOVE ABOUT CRICKET
Memoir, 288 pages
Ebury Publishing, March 2009
The story of a summer when a ‘master’ cricket obsessive teaches his novice ‘pupil’ the wisdom of the game.
VULNERABLE IN HEARTS
Memoir, 224 pages
Atlantic Books, February 2005
The moving story of the author’s relationship with his late father, who taught him to play bridge. A witty, poignant meditation on how we communicate, and the ways in which we love.
’Lovely... original, unusual and surprisingly moving.’ – Jonathan Yardley, The Washington Post
PRETTY GIRL IN CRIMSON ROSE (8)
Memoir, 198 pages
Atlantic Books, February 2003
An intelligent and sparkling semi-autobiographical take on the history and allure of crosswords, spiced with anecdote and humour, and some tips on how to conquer the bastards – ‘a linguophile’s FEVER PITCH’ or ‘a hybrid biography-cum-crossword fantasia’!