Catherine Mayer
Catherine Mayer is an American-born British author and journalist, and the co-founder and President of the former Women's Equality Party in the UK.
Early life
Mayer was born in the US and later became naturalised as British. She moved to Britain as a child when her father, the theatre historian David Mayer, came to research a book and later secured employment at Manchester University, where his students included Ben Elton and Rik Mayall. Her mother, Anne Mayer Bird, is prominent within theatre PR.Mayer attended Manchester High School for Girls, and studied English Literature and European Studies at the University of Sussex. One of her sisters is The Young Ones co-writer Lise Mayer, while another is the theatre agent Cassie Mayer.
Career
Mayer started her career at The Economist and has worked as a foreign correspondent at the German news weekly Focus.Mayer was president of the Foreign Press Association in London from June 2003 until June 2005. She worked at Time magazine from 2004 to April 2015, serving as Times Editor at Large, Europe Editor, London Bureau Chief and Senior Editor. Mayer began legal action against Time in July 2017 on the grounds of age and gender discrimination. Her attorney was Dr. Ann Olivarius, a founding member of the Women's Equality Party, which was co-founded by Mayer ; Mayer and Olivarius were featured in a 2018 of Thomson Reuters Legal UK & Ireland’s podcast series, "The Hearing." Mayer's lawsuit prompted other journalists to seek legal advice about sexual discrimination and ended with an "amicable resolution" in 2018.
In 2011 Mayer wrote Amortality: The Pleasures and Perils of Living Agelessly about the pros and cons of people living longer. Her 2015 biography of Prince Charles, published in the UK as Charles: The Heart of a King and in the US as Born to Be King, generated worldwide headlines with its claims of dysfunction in the royal courts. Clarence House, which had facilitated access to the Prince, distanced itself from the book. Mayer stood by the content. The book was a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.
Mayer's non-fiction Attack of the 50ft. Women was published in 2017. The book covers the benefits of gender equality and how it is being promoted in various countries, and has been described as "a compelling feminist call to arms".
Her memoir Good Grief, which incorporates letters written by her mother and covers the death of both women's husbands and the coronavirus pandemic, was published by HarperCollins in December 2020, with an updated paperback edition in February 2022. Reviewing Good Grief in The Observer, Kate Kellaway called it "smart, upbeat and brimming with fortitude", and those who also gave endorsements and praise included Kate Mosse, who described it as "a perfect book, specific and personal, but spot on about the universal nature of grief and how we grieve. Every page sings."