ONE of Britain’s best after-dinner speakers is set to appear at the Awards for Achievement 2009.

Best-selling author and accomplished broadcaster Frances Edmonds (pictured) was voted the nation’s most entertaining after-dinner speaker in a survey by The Times.

Andy Hall, chief executive of the Garenne Group, one of the team sponsors of the awards, said she had a reputation as a controversial, irreverent and very funny lady.

‘We’re all absolutely delighted that she has accepted our invitation to speak at the Awards for Achievement gala evening, which promises to be lively and thought-provoking.’

After graduating from Cambridge University, she trained as an international interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels.

She worked for the EU, the UN, the OECD, the WEU and the G7 heads of state and government at their annual world economic summits. She speaks five languages.

She launched her professional writing career after accompanying her husband, international cricketer Phil Edmonds, on England’s disastrous 1986 West Indies tour.

Her highly controversial best-seller, Another Bloody Tour, shook the English cricketing establishment to its foundations.

Her broadcasting career has seen her host programmes from Question Time to A Question of Sport.

She is an honorary fellow of the British Association of Women Entrepreneurs, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a founder member and Fellow of the Professional Speakers’ Association.

nÊThe 2009 Awards for Achievement gala evening is on Thursday 4 February at Beau Sejour.

For more event information or to buy tickets, contact Natalie Davidson at The Guernsey Event Company on 728686.