Claire Rayner
| Claire Rayner | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Claire Berenice Chetwynd 22 January 1931 London, England |
| Died | 11 October 2010 (aged 79) Harrow, London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | City of London School for Girls |
| Occupation | Nurse, journalist, broadcaster, novelist |
| Years active | 1949–2010 |
| Spouse(s) |
Desmond Rayner (m. 1957–2010) (her death) |
| Children | 3, including Jay Rayner |
Claire Berenice Rayner OBE (née Chetwynd; 22 January 1931 – 11 October 2010) was an English nurse, journalist, broadcaster and novelist, best known for her role for many years as an agony aunt.
Rayner was born to Jewish parents in London, the eldest of four children. 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. 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. 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.
Returning to the UK in 1951, Rayner trained as a nurse at the Royal Northern Hospital and Guy's Hospital in London. She intended to become a doctor; 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.
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.
The birth of her first child in 1960 meant that she found full-time nursing difficult, and so she focused on a full-time writing career. Initially writing articles for various magazines and publications, in 1968 she published one of the earliest sex manuals, People in Love, which brought her to national attention. Describing the "explicit content", the same reviewer commended Rayner on her "down-to-earth approach to the subject".
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