Sandi Toksvig

Sandra “Sandi” Birgitte Toksvig, OBE, (born 3 May 1958 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a British writer, comedian, and radio and TV presenter. She lives and works in England.

Sandi Toksvig was born on 3 May 1958 in Copenhagen. Her father, Claus Toksvig, was a foreign correspondent for Danmarks Radio. She spent six years at Mamaroneck High School in New York before studying at Girton College, Cambridge. Her first book, a children’s story called Tales from the Norse’s Mouth, was published in March 1994 (no German edition). She writes regular columns for the women’s magazine Good Housekeeping and for the Sunday Telegraph.

She began her comedy career at Cambridge, where she wrote the first all-female show for the Cambridge Footlights. While at Girton, she was also a member of the Cambridge University Light Entertainment Society. She performed improvisation at London’s Comedy Store. On television, she presented children’s shows like No. 73, Saturday Starship, Get Fresh, Motormouth, and Gilbert’s Fridge. From 2010 to 2016 she co-hosted The Great British Bake Off. She was a regular guest on the quiz show QI (Quite Interesting), and in October 2016 she took over as its host from Stephen Fry. She has also appeared on Call My Bluff, Whose Line Is It Anyway?, Mock the Week, and first appeared on Have I Got News For You in 1990.

Until June 2015, she hosted BBC Radio 4’s The News Quiz, replacing Simon Hoggart in September 2006. In 2007 she was the main host of Excess Baggage. She is also often a guest on the radio show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue and on Giles Wemmbley Hogg Goes Off. For three years, until December 2005, she had a weekday lunchtime show on London talk radio LBC 97.3.

Her wife is psychotherapist Debbie Toksvig.^[1]

Sandi Toksvig has supported the Liberal Democrats. In 2003 she ran for Chancellor of the University of Oxford but was eliminated in the first round. She campaigned against student fees. In March 2015 she co-founded the Women’s Equality Party.

• Hitler’s Canary, Doubleday, July 2005
• The Troublesome Tooth Fairy, Transworld, November 2000, ISBN 0-552-54663-1
• Super-Saver Mouse to the Rescue, Transworld, April 2000, ISBN 0-552-54541-4
• Super-Saver Mouse, Transworld, September 1999, ISBN 0-552-54540-6
• If I Didn’t Have Elbows, De Agostini, April 1998, ISBN 1-84089-048-7
• Unusual Day, Transworld/Corgi, April 1997, ISBN 0-552-54539-2
• If This Had Never Been Invented, De Agostini, 1996
• Tales from the Norse’s Mouth, BBC Books, March 1994, ISBN 0-563-40358-6

• Island Race: An Improbable Voyage Round the Coast of Britain (with John McCarthy), BBC Books, 1995
• Great Journeys of the World, Penguin, 1997
• Drowning in the Desert, Transworld, 1998
• Whistling for the Elephants, Transworld, August 1999, ISBN 0-593-04480-0
• Flying Under Bridges, Little, Brown, April 2001
• The Travels of Lady Bulldog Burton (with Sandy Nightingale), Little, Brown, September 2002
• Tell the Führer It’s Shakespeare, Little, Brown, December 2002
• Gladys Reunited: A Personal American Journey, Little, Brown, 2003, ISBN 0-7515-3328-9
• Melted into Air, Little, Brown, July 2006
• Forgotten Forest, June 2007

Two of her books have been published in German:

• Elefantenballett, translated by Julia Rabel, München: Goldmann, 2000, ISBN 3-442-35269-X{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Hitlers Kanarienvogel [Hitler’s Canary], translated by Tanja Ohlsen, Köln: Boje, 2006, ISBN 978-3-414-82029-7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)

1. ↑ A Life in the Day: Sandi Toksvig thetimes.co.uk, retrieved 19 September 2019