Henry Blofeld

Henry Calthorpe Blofeld, OBE (born 23 September 1939; nicknamed Blowers by Brian Johnston) is an English sports journalist and broadcaster, best known as a cricket commentator for Test Match Special on BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. He has established a reputation as a commentator with an accent, vocabulary and syntax that is quintessentially Old Etonian both in style and substance. He also writes on cricket and has authored eight books to date.

Early life

Blofeld's family were landowners in Norfolk and he was the youngest of three siblings. His older brother, Sir John Blofeld, became a High Court judge. Henry's father (Thomas Robert Calthorpe Blofeld, 1903–1986) was at Eton with Ian Fleming and his name is believed to have been the inspiration for the name of James Bond supervillain, Ernst Stavro Blofeld.

Blofeld is a distant relative of the Honourable Freddie Calthorpe, a former England Test captain, but, contrary to common belief, he is not Calthorpe's nephew. Blofeld had spells at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, but failed both his final exams "by an innings".