Fi Glover
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Fi (Fiona) Glover (born 27 February 1970) is a BBC journalist and presenter. Her style is characterised by a mix of serious journalism and subtle satirical and sarcastic comment.
She grew up in Hampshire, with her mother Priscilla, whilst her father was in Hong Kong establishing a business. Her parents eventually separated. She attended the St Swithun's girls school in Winchester. She had bulimic tendencies in her teens.
She studied Classical Civilisation and Philosophy at the University of Kent (1987-1990). In 1993 she started her BBC career as a reporter on various local radio stations including BBC Somerset Sound, Humberside, Northampton and GLR. She won a silver Sony Award from her GLR breakfast show (she won a bronze Sony with Five Live in 2002). In 1997, she joined BBC Radio Five Live, where she spent seven years as a key broadcaster in news and political coverage, and presenting the afternoon show, the mirthful late-night phone-in programme and the Sunday Service programme with Charlie Whelan.
She is the former host of BBC Radio 4's Sunday morning news analysis programme Broadcasting House, which she took over from Eddie Mair in 2004. She formed a relationship with Rick Jones, an executive with Camelot Group. Taking maternity leave in December 2005 and giving birth to a son in January 2006, she returned to regular broadcasting to take over the Radio 4 Saturday 9am slot (which was formerly occupied by John Peel's Home Truths) with a new programme, Saturday Live and to present Traveller's Tree on Thursday afternoons.
In 2000 Glover travelled the world visiting notable radio stations, which resulted in the book I'm an Oil Tanker: Travels with my Radio (ISBN 0-09-188274-5), named after a Spooneresque mistake by a news reader. The radio stations documented in the book include a temporary BBC station for the Euro 2000 football tournament, run from a cafe in Belgium, an English language station in Geneva, a station run by Irish UN peacekeeping forces in Lebanon and Montserrat Radio which broadcast throughout the 1996 Volcanic eruption.
She met her future husband, 6ft 5in Mark Sandell (nine years older than her), when he was the producer of Nicky Campbell's programme. They married in 2001. He became head of news programmes at Five Live and left her to form a relationship with Victoria Derbyshire, with whom he fathered a son in January 2004. In early 2003, Fi took over the mid-morning programme, immediately following Victoria's breakfast programme (produced by Mark Sandell). The thorny relationship with Victoria contributed to Fi moving from Five Live in May 2003.
She has occasionally stood in for Jeremy Vine on his lunchtime show on Radio 2.
