Editing Claire Rayner

{{short description|British writer and advice columnist (1931–2010)}}
{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| honorific_suffix = [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] 
| name         = Claire Rayner
| image        = Claire Rayner.jpg
| caption      = 
| birthname    = Claire Berenice Berkovitch (later Chetwynd)<ref name="dnb"/>
| birth_date   = {{Birth date|df=yes|1931|1|22}}
| birth_place  = [[Stepney]], [[London]], England
| death_date   = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2010|10|11|1931|1|22}}
| death_place  = [[Harrow, London|Harrow]], London, England
| education    = {{nowrap|[[City of London School for Girls]]}}
| occupation   = Journalist, broadcaster,<br /> novelist, nurse
| spouse       = {{marriage|Desmond Rayner|23 June 1957<!--|11 October 2010|end=her death-->}}
| children     = [[Jay Rayner]], Amanda, Adam
| nationality  = British
| years_active = 1949–2010
}}
'''Claire Berenice Rayner''', [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|r|eɪ|n|ər}}; {{nee}} '''Berkovitch''', later	'''Chetwynd'''; 22 January 1931 – 11 October 2010) was a British journalist, broadcaster, novelist and nurse, best known for her role for many years as an [[advice column|advice columnist]].

==Early life==
Rayner was born to Jewish parents in [[Stepney]],<ref name="dnb">Jane Reed, "Rayner [née Berkovitch], Claire Berenice
(1931–2010)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Jan 2014 [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/103171 available online]. Retrieved 26 August 2020.</ref>  London, the eldest of four children.<ref name="TelgObit"/> Her father was a [[tailor]] and her mother a housewife. Her father had adopted the surname Chetwynd, under which name she was educated at the [[City of London School for Girls]].<ref name=TelgObit/> 

Her [[autobiography]] ''How Did I Get Here from There?'' was published in 2003, and revealed details of a childhood marred by physical and mental cruelty at the hands of her parents.<ref name="talesmy">{{cite news|url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,905443,00.html|title=Tales my mother never told me|last=Rayner|first=Jay|date=2 March 2003|work=The Observer|location=London}}</ref> After the family emigrated to [[Canada]], in 1945 she was placed in a psychiatric hospital by her parents, and treated for 15 months for a [[thyroid]] defect.<ref name=TelgObit/>

==Career==

===Nursing===
Returning to the UK in 1951,<ref name=TelgObit/> Rayner trained as a nurse at the [[Royal Northern Hospital]] and [[Guy's Hospital]] in London. She intended to become a physician; while training as a nurse, however, she met actor Desmond Rayner, whom she married in 1957. The couple lived in London and Claire worked as a midwife and later nursing sister.<ref name=TelgObit>{{cite news|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/culture-obituaries/tv-radio-obituaries/8058936/Claire-Rayner.html|title=Obituary, Claire Rayner|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=12 October 2010|access-date=12 October 2010|location=London}}</ref>

===Journalist and writer===
Rayner wrote her first letter to ''[[Nursing Times]]'' in 1958, on nurses' pay and conditions. She then began regularly writing to ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'' on themes of patient care or nurses' pay. She began writing novels soon after her marriage, and by 1968 had published more than 25 books.<ref name=TelgObit/>

The birth of her first child in 1960<ref name="Hayman">{{cite news|author= Hayman, Suzie|url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2010/oct/12/claire-rayner-obituary|title= Obituary: Claire Rayner|work= [[The Guardian]]|date= 12 October 2010|access-date = 25 February 2025}}</ref> meant that she found full-time nursing difficult, and so focused on a full-time writing career. Initially writing articles for magazines and publications, in 1968 she published one of the earliest sex manuals, ''People in Love'', which brought her to national attention. Despite the "explicit" content, the work was commended for its "down-to-earth" and "sensible" approach.<ref name=TelgObit/>

By the 1970s, Rayner had established herself in writing for ''[[Woman's Own]]'' as one of four new and direct "agony aunts", alongside [[Marjorie Proops]], [[Peggy Makins]] (aka Evelyn Home) at ''[[Woman (UK magazine)|Woman]]'' and J. Firbank of ''[[Penthouse Forum|Forum]]''.<ref name=TelgObit/> Her advice in the teenaged girls' magazine ''[[Petticoat (magazine)|Petticoat]]'' caused controversy. In 1972, she was accused of "encouraging masturbation and promiscuity in prepubescent girls".<ref name=TelgObit/> Her direct and frank approach led the [[BBC]] to ask her to be the first person on British pre-watershed television to demonstrate how to put on a condom, and she was one of the first people used by advertisers to promote sanitary towels.<ref name=TelgObit/>

The year after beginning to appear on ''[[Pebble Mill at One]]'', Rayner started an agony column in ''[[The Sun (United Kingdom)|The Sun]]'' in 1973,<ref name="Hayman"/> but left to join the ''[[Sunday Mirror]]'' in 1980, when she also made her second television series of ''Claire Rayner's Casebook.'' She left the ''Sunday Mirror'' shortly after the appointment of [[Eve Pollard]] as editor, and joined the ''[[Today (UK newspaper)|Today]]'' newspaper for three years. Rayner was named medical journalist of the year in 1987.<ref name=TelgObit/>

Rayner was probably best known as an agony aunt on [[TV-am]] in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She made it her personal aim to reply to every letter she received. This was an unfunded project by the station.

She was the subject of ''[[This Is Your Life (UK TV series)|This Is Your Life]]'' in 1989, when she was surprised by [[Michael Aspel]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0721544/|title=This Is Your Life {{!}} Claire Rayner|website=[[IMDb]]|access-date=2 December 2024}}</ref>

===Campaigner===
Rayner became president of the [[Patients Association]], and through her extensive charity work and writings was appointed [[Order of the British Empire|OBE]] in 1996 for services to women's health and wellbeing and to health matters. Rayner had a very personal reason for supporting [[Sense, The National Deafblind and Rubella Association|Sense]]'s Older Person campaign, wearing hearing aids in both ears, and also had [[macular degeneration|age-related dry macular degeneration]] (AMD), a sight loss common in older people.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sense.org.uk/media_centre/celebrity_supporters/claire_rayner_interview_transcript|title="Interview transcript with Claire Rayner", Sense.}}{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

Between 1993 and 2002, Rayner was one of the patrons of the [[Herpes Viruses Association]] and chaired a Press Briefing in June 1993 aimed at destigmatising genital herpes. When tendering her resignation, she cited the fact that she was patron of 60 organisations as the reason for trimming the list.<ref>''SPHERE'' magazine. 1993;8(3):3–28.</ref>

Rayner was appointed to UK government committees on health, and consequently authored a chapter in ''The Future of the NHS''.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Tempest|first1=Michelle|title=The Future of the NHS|date=2006|publisher=XPL |isbn=1-85811-369-5|url=http://www.thefutureofthenhs.com/book.html|access-date=13 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017015638/http://www.thefutureofthenhs.com/book.html|archive-date=17 October 2015|url-status=dead}}</ref> Despite being president of the Patients Association, Rayner used private health care.<ref>Laura Donnelly, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2171549/NHS-at-60-In-the-end-I-had-to-go-private.html "NHS at 60: In the end I had to go private"], ''Daily Telegraph'', 21 June 2008.</ref> She was a member of the Labour government's Royal Commission on the Care of the Elderly. In 1999, Rayner was appointed to a committee responsible for reviewing the medical conditions at [[Holloway (HM Prison)|Holloway Prison]], London, at the direction of [[Paul Boateng]] who was then the Minister for Prisons. The recommendations of this committee led to far-reaching changes in the provision of medical care within Holloway.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/466126.stm |title=News.BBC.co.uk |publisher=BBC News |date=5 October 1999 |access-date=24 January 2011}}</ref> She also sat on the Prime Minister's independent commission on nursing and midwifery that published the [[Front Line Care (Report)]] in 2010.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Keen |first=Ann |title=Front Line Care - Report by the Prime Minister's Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England |date=2010 |publisher=Prime Minister's Commission on the Future of Nursing and Midwifery in England (crown copyright) |isbn=9780956513809}}</ref>

A lifelong [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour Party]] supporter, she resigned in 2001 and joined the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrats]] in fear of the proposed changes to the NHS from the administration of Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]].<ref name=TelgObit/> Rayner was also a prominent supporter of the [[Republicanism in the United Kingdom|British republican movement]], although admitted her dual standards on accepting her OBE in 1996.<ref>{{cite news|author= Milmo, Cahal|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/claire-rayners-last-words-dont-screw-up-my-nhs-2104997.html |title=Claire Rayner's last words: 'Don't screw up my NHS'|newspaper=[[The Independent]]|date=13 October 2010|access-date = 23 February 2025}}</ref>

Rayner was Vice-President (and formerly President) of the [[British Humanist Association]], a Distinguished Supporter of the [[Humanist Society Scotland]] and an Honorary Associate of the [[National Secular Society]]. In the weeks leading up to her death, Rayner had the following to say about [[Pope Benedict XVI]]'s state visit to the United Kingdom:
{{quote|I have no language with which to adequately describe Joseph Alois Ratzinger, AKA the Pope. In all my years as a campaigner I have never felt such animus against any individual as I do against this creature. His views are so disgusting, so repellent and so hugely damaging to the rest of us, that the only thing to do is to get rid of him.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newhumanist.org.uk/2369/an-audience-with-the-pope |title=An Audience with the Pope |work=New Humanist |date=7 September 2010 |access-date=24 January 2011}}</ref>}}

Rayner's position as a patron of the [[Down's Syndrome Association]] was promptly terminated in 1995.<ref name="Lawson">{{cite news|last=Lawson|first=Dominic|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/dominic-lawson/dominic-lawson-shame-on-the-doctors-prejudiced-against-down-syndrome-1033813.html|title=Shame on the doctors prejudiced against Down Syndrome|date=25 November 2008|work=The Independent|access-date=23 January 2022}}</ref> She had queried parents' decision to have a disabled child:
{{quote|The hard facts are that it is costly in terms of human effort, compassion, energy, and finite resources such as money, to care for individuals with handicaps (and to hell with political correctness; there is more to these dilemmas than mere 'learning difficulties').<ref name="Indy1995">{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/another-view-a-duty-to-choose-unselfishly-1588540.html|last=Rayner|first=Claire|title=Another View: A duty to choose unselfishly|work=[[The Independent]] |date=26 June 1995|access-date = 25 February 2025}}</ref>}}
It was a response to the decision of journalist [[Dominic Lawson]] and his wife<!-- Rosa Monckton herself is not named in Lawson's article. --> not to have a test determining the health of the foetus during a pregnancy and thus, following one potential result, rejecting outright the option of a termination. It was published shortly after the birth of the couple's disabled daughter.<ref name="Lawson" /><ref name="Indy1995" />

==Personal life==
Rayner met her husband, actor Desmond Rayner, at [[Maccabi (sports)|Maccabi]] in [[Hampstead]]; the couple married in 1957.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thejc.com/news/news/agony-aunt-claire-rayner-dies-at-age-79-1.18719|title=Agony aunt Claire Rayner dies at age 79|work=[[The Jewish Chronicle]]|first=Jennifer|last=Lipman|date=12 October 2010|access-date=15 April 2023}}</ref> They had three children together: writer and food critic [[Jay Rayner]],<ref name="talesmy"/> electronics reviewer, angling and motoring journalist Adam Rayner and events manager Amanda Rayner.

Rayner was found to have [[breast cancer]] in 2002 at the age of 71. She became a breast cancer activist to promote the work of the charity [[Cancer Research UK]].<ref name="health">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4530622.stm|title=Celebrity Health – Claire Rayner|date=16 January 2006|work=BBC News}}</ref> She also suffered from [[Graves' disease]]<ref name="talesmy" /> and became a patron of the [[British Thyroid Foundation]] in 1994.

Rayner never recovered from emergency intestinal surgery undertaken in May 2010, and died in hospital on 11 October 2010.<ref name="dnb"/> She told her relatives she wanted her last words to be: "Tell [[David Cameron]] that if he screws up my beloved [[National Health Service|NHS]] I'll come back and bloody haunt him."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11520609|title=Agony aunt and NHS campaigner Claire Rayner dies at 79|work=[[BBC News]]|date=12 October 2010|access-date=15 April 2023}}</ref>

==Publications==
Rayner was a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/r/claire-rayner |title=Claire Rayner |publisher=Fantasticfiction.co.uk |access-date=24 January 2011}}</ref>

===Fiction===

====Performers====
*''Gower Street'' (1973)
*''The Haymarket'' (1974)
*''Paddington Green'' (1975)
*''Soho Square'' (1976)
*''Bedford Row'' (1977)
*''Long Acre'' (1978)
*''Charing Cross'' (1979)
*''The Strand'' (1980)
*''Chelsea Reach'' (1982)
*''Shaftesbury Avenue'' (1983)
*''Piccadilly'' (1985)
*''Seven Dials'' (1986)

====Poppy Chronicles====
*''Jubilee'' (1987)
*''Flanders'' (1988)
*''Flapper'' (1988)
*''Blitz'' (1988)
*''Festival'' (1988)
*''Sixties'' (1988)

====George Barnabas====
*''First Blood'' (1993)
*''Second Opinion'' (1994)
*''Third Degree'' (1995)
*''Fourth Attempt'' (1996)
*''Fifth Member'' (1997)

====Quentin Quartet====
*''London Lodgings'' (1994)
*''Paying Guests'' (1995)

====Novels====
*''The House on the Fen'' (1967)
*''Starch of Aprons'' (1967)
*''Lady Mislaid'' (1968)
*''Death on the Table'' (1969)
*''The Meddlers'' (1970)
*''A Time to Heal'' (1972)
*''The Burning Summer'' (1972)<ref>[https://www.allisonandbusby.com/a-goodbye-to-former-allison-busby-author-claire-rayner/ "A Goodbye to former Allison & Busby author, Claire Rayner"], Allison & Busby, 13 October 2010.</ref>
*''Reprise'' (1980)
*''The Running Years'' (1981)
*''The Enduring Years'' (1982)
*''Trafalgar Square'' (1982)
*''Family Chorus'' (1984)
*''The Virus Man'' (1985)
*''Sisters'' (1986)
*''Lunching at Laura's'' (1986)
*''Maddie'' (1988)
*''Children's Ward, the Lonely One, Private Wing'' (1988)
*''Postscripts'' (1991)
*''Dangerous Things'' (1993)
*''The Final Year'' (1993)
*''Cottage Hospital'' (1993)
*''Company'' (1993)
*''The Doctors of Downlands'' (1994)
*''Nurse in the Sun'' (1994)
*''The Lonely One'' (1995)
*''Children's Ward'' (1995)
*''The Private Wing'' (1996)
*''The Legacy'' (1997)
*''The Inheritance'' (1998)

===Non-fiction===
*''What Happens in Hospital'' (1963)
*''Essentials of Outpatient Nursing'' (1967)
*''One Hundred and One Facts an Expectant Mother Should Know'' (1967)
*''For Children'' (1967)
*''Housework the Easy Way'' (1967)
*''One Hundred and One Key Facts on Baby Care'' (1967)
*''Shall I Be a Nurse?'' (1967)
*''People in Love: Modern Guide to Sex in Marriage'' (1968)
*''Parent's Guide to Sex Education'' (1968)
*''Woman's Medical Dictionary'' (1971)
*''About Sex'' (1972)
*''When to Call the Doctor: What to Do Whilst Waiting'' (1972)
*''Child Care'' (1973)
*''Shy Person's Book'' (1973)
*''Where Do I Come from?: Answers to a Child's Questions About Sex'' (1974)
*''Independent Television's Kitchen Garden'' (1976)
*''Atlas of the Body and Mind'' (1976)
*''Claire Rayner Answers Your 100 Questions on Pregnancy'' (1977)
*''Family Feelings: Understanding Your Child from 0 to 5'' (1977)
*''Body Book'' (1978)
*''Related to Sex: Talking About Sexual Feelings within Your Family'' (1979)
*''Independent Television's Greenhouse Gardening'' (1979)
*''Everything Your Doctor Would Tell You If He Had the Time'' (1980)
*''Baby and Young Child Care: A Practical Guide to Parents of Children Aged 0–5 Years'' (1981)
*''Growing Pains and How to Avoid Them'' (1984)
*''Marriage Guide'' (1984)
*''The Getting Better Book'' (1985)
*''Claire Rayner's Lifeguide: A Commonsense Approach to Modern Living'' (1985)
*''When I Grow Up'' (1986)
*''Woman'' (1986)
*''Safe Sex'' (1987)
*''The Don't Spoil Your Body Book'' (1989)
*''Clinical Judgements'' (1989)<ref>[https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780718132514 "Clinical Judgements"], ''[[Publishers Weekly]]'', 1 January 1989.</ref>
*''Life and Love and Everything'' (1993)
*''Grandparenting Today: Making the Most of Your Grandparenting Skills With Grandchildren of All Ages'' (1997)
*''How Did I Get Here from There?'' (2003)<ref>[https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/6575398.review-get-claire-rayner-virago-17-99/ "Review: How did I get here from there? by Claire Rayner (Virago, £17.99)"], ''[[Oxford Mail]]'', 27 May 2023.</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==External links==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{IMDb name|0713451}}
* [[Helena Kennedy|Kennedy, Helena]], [https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2010/dec/12/claire-rayner-obituary-by-helena-kennedy "The Claire Rayner I knew"], ''[[The Observer]]'', 12 December 2010.
* [https://heritage.humanists.uk/claire-rayner/ "Claire Rayner (1931-2010)"], Humanist Heritage.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rayner, Claire}}
[[Category:1931 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English women writers]]
[[Category:21st-century British writers]]
[[Category:21st-century English women writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College London]]
[[Category:British advice columnists]]
[[Category:British republicans]]
[[Category:English columnists]]
[[Category:English humanists]]
[[Category:English journalists]]
[[Category:English women columnists]]
[[Category:English women non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:English women novelists]]
[[Category:Jewish advice columnists]]
[[Category:Jewish English writers]]
[[Category:Jewish humanists]]
[[Category:Nurses from London]]
[[Category:Officers of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:People educated at the City of London School for Girls]]
[[Category:People from Harrow, London]]
[[Category:People from Stepney]]
[[Category:Presidents of Humanists UK]]
[[Category:Writers from the London Borough of Harrow]]
[[Category:Writers from the London Borough of Tower Hamlets]]