WRITER AND RADIO PRESENTER


Inspired by the film "Born Free" Paul Blezard was originally going to be a big game warden, but finding at the age of eight that there were limited opportunities in this field in the wilds of Northamptonshire, he instead stayed at school, later gaining a degree in geology before turning to stockbroking.

Forsaking the rigours of Mammon after six years, he left the city to pursue a career in music, ending up as a rock star in communist Bulgaria, then as a yacht broker on London's Bond Street, followed by a number of years as an international model, working as the face of Paul Smith, Philip's razors and Barbour wax jackets. There then followed a variety of other "professions" upon which it is probably best to let the dust of time settle.

Now a writer of fiction and non-fiction, Paul has also been for eight years the key presenter at Oneword Radio - the digital station dedicated to spoken word, books and drama - where his unique daily author interview programme "Between the Lines" has recently clocked up over 1,500 editions. He has also been the books reviewer for BBC Radio 2's "The Green Room" with Mariella Frostrup, has had a weekly Sunday evening show on LBC 97.3 FM and his mellifluous voice has been described by Paul Donovan of the Sunday Times as having 'more fruit than Carmen Miranda's hat'. In addition to broadcasting he has chaired literary events at the prestigious Guardian Hay Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, Oxford, Cheltenham, Cambridge, Harrogate, Ilkley and Guildford Festival to name but a few. He is also a "Reading Champion for the National Literary Trust and in September 2004 hosted the extraordinary nine day, nationwide 'Storyquest' event that was run by the Hay Festival and Prince Charles' Arts and Kids organization.

Nicky Haslam has also written about him in the Daily Telegraph as being one of the "best-dressed men in London", but then it had been a very late night and was quite unbelievably dark at the time.