She breathed her last breath on October 11th, 2010. Her sons Adam arrived in 1962, then Jay in 1966. Worked with her a few years ago. Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features. 05.35 EDT. "I took one look at him and thought: 'Ooer, buy me that!' Many of my colleagues at the Observer were jealous of me for having that. Rayner added: "She had been through a hell of a lot of health troubles over the last five months, and some of us thought towards the end that she actually just wanted to give up. She had been made a freeman of the City of London in 1981 and a member of the Royal Society of Medicine in 1983. It was not just the larger audiences but the personal qualities she brought to the job. Angela Rayner (née Bowen; born 28 March 1980) is a British politician serving as Shadow First Secretary of State and Deputy Leader of the Opposition since 2020. But given her experience of "family life", she never thought she would want children and her thyroid problems made getting pregnant far from easy – she was later to say it took six doctors as well as her and Des to produce her first child, Amanda, born in 1960. The letters showed up great chasms of ignorance and fear, and a desperate need for information. All hacks have to make a living. She is survived by Des, Amanda, Adam and Jay, and four grandchildren. Claire Rayner’s most popular book is Gower Street (Performers, #1). According to our records, Claire Rayner is possibly single. ", Sam Baker, the editor of woman's monthly Red, said: "Amazing woman and legendary last words. She had no idea what she had done, but convinced the editor that an advice column using genuine letters would be more than worthwhile. Related to Sex [Rayner, Claire] on Amazon.com. Claire Rayner, who has died aged 79, was probably the best known and best loved agony aunt. Tom has worked for Sky News … Photograph: Nils Jorgensen/Rex Features. Rayner is Vice-President (and former President) of the British Humanist Association, a Distinguished Supporter of the Humanist Society of Scotland and an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society. " she recalled. "I'm assuming right now there are various columnists on the rightwing press who are sharpening their pencils to write pieces about why Claire Rayner is responsible for the collapse of western civilisation. Claire Rayner, who has died aged 79, was probably the best known and best loved agony aunt. Join Facebook to connect with Tom Rayner and others you may know. Previously he was foreign correspondent based in Bangkok covering South East Asia, and Jerusalem covering the Middle East. Related Topics. Determined to stay, in 1951 she became a student nurse at the Royal Northern hospital, in the Holloway Road. "But on a one to one basis she was a great parent, and as a journalist she was also a fantastic source. Rayner later said of her parents that "they were very young and very feckless". Rayner was a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction. Rayner always credited Marje Proops as being the doyenne of advice columnists, but it was Rayner whose name became synonymous with the title "agony aunt", a fact confirmed when she joined Pebble Mill at One in 1972 and the Sun newspaper in 1973. Once married, she continued nursing, becoming a paediatrics sister at the Whittington hospital in north London. "They were married for 53 years, it's an amazing achievement.". "She was a remarkable woman with broad interests and deep sympathies who lived an exemplary humanist life and we all feel lucky to have known her and to have had her support for so many enjoyable years.". Claire Rayner. Click here to find personal data about Claire Rayner including phone numbers, addresses, directorships, electoral roll information, related property prices and other useful information. The latter's version of But Not For Me started with: "Oh Claire Rayner, don't you dare/ever tell me he will care/I'm certain/this is the final curtain.". I can't resist other people's stories. She was patron of more than 100 charities and organisations and a member of committees as various as the health advisory board at Holloway Prison, the Royal College of Nursing committee on ethics and the video appeals committee of the British Board of Film Classification. Well absolutely not, no adolescent tells their mother about his sexual anxieties or whatever. Tom Rayner is on Facebook. Yet she always drew a line between information, however explicit she was prepared to be, and titillation. She thought fast, she talked fast and she believed people could solve their own problems, if they were given respect. ', "Everyone's fascinating. She was respected above all for showing that she both needed and took the sort of advice she offered. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". It was a cottage industry, with Rayner's staff working their own hours and with what amounted to a creche in the Rayner kitchen, presided over by Amanda, earning pocket money by keeping the children amused. It didn't work, unfortunately. Photograph: Nick Cunard/Rex Features. I wanted to get him into bed but he was terribly prim about it.". Claire Rayner, the journalist, broadcaster and novelist who died on Monday aged 79, was one of Britain's best-known agony aunts, a matronly figure prone to addressing everyone as "lovey". "She would have always wanted to be the last person to leave the party and she was furious at going," the Observer food writer told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.. Rayner described his mother as a "fantastic communicator underpinned by huge, huge knowledge. The agony aunt Claire Rayner, has died at the age of 79. Jason Matthew Rayner was born on 14 September 1966. $ 5.09. In 1959, one of her early scripts for Woman's Hour, about children in hospital, had earned her the then stupendous fee of eight guineas when the Central Council for Health Education bought it and turned it into a leaflet. Piccadilly. The writer, broadcaster and agony aunt failed to recover after undergoing emergency intestinal surgery in May, Pa reports. Claire Rayner has 101 books on Goodreads with 2649 ratings. She received a flurry of letters from women desperate for information, reassurance and support. In 1947 she succumbed to her parents' pressure to join them in Canada and spent three stormy years there, homesick not for people but for London. Instead, she gave in to a friend's invitation to go along to his drama group, and met Des Rayner. Claire Rayner was a nurse, journalist, broadcaster, and novelist. Rayner said his mother had led an "amazing life" and he was "very, very proud of her". Mariann was born in 1824, in Wramplingham, Norfolk, England. At the height of this activity, working for TV-am, Sky, the Sunday Mirror and Woman's Own, Rayner had six secretaries, a research assistant and a post clerk for the 1,000 letters a week. People would say what was it like to have Claire Rayner as your mother and would you go to her with your problems? Shadow education secretary Angela Rayner has announced she is joining the contest to replace Tom Watson as Labour's deputy leader. She had led an absolutely amazing life and I am very, very proud of her.". Tom Rayner. She was always particularly passionate about universal healthcare for all and it is typical that as she was being wheeled off for her own mastectomy operation in 2001 she was in full flow, not about her own needs but about the health rights of the elderly. @RaynerSkyNews. She was the first advice columnist in popular journalism to accept that men could have problems, too, and to convince her editors on the Sun that she should be allowed to deal with them in the paper. Clare Rayner was born in 1848, at birth place, to Robert Rayner and Mariann Rayner (born Copland). Seven Dials. Rayner left nursing to be at home with her daughter. Out of Stock. She was married to Desmond Rayner. The son of late Agony Aunt Claire Rayner has hit out at Royal Mail, after a birthday card containing £100 did not arrive at his home address. Rayner insisted that every letter should receive an answer. As a mother, she was "fantastic", said Rayner. I will be livid if they don't. Tom Rayner is a political correspondent for Sky News. "I never rewrote the letters, but let people use their own language – it was the real voice of the reader.". Rayner would remember that, as a child, she was always getting into trouble for talking too fast and writing too fast. In 1945, her family emigrated to Canada, but Claire refused to go with them. Her career and her job were always the most important things to her and, after six years as a nurse, during which she won the hospital gold medal for outstanding achievement and studied midwifery, she decided to become a doctor. She agonised over whether to accept an OBE in 1996, but decided she could use it as a platform from which to shout louder. Rayner was always willing to take on causes that no one else was prepared to touch. She wrote for Nursing Times, Nursing Mirror and the Lancet, and her first book, Mothers and Midwives, was published by Allen & Unwin in 1962. She was born in the East End of London, the child of what she always called a "disastrous" marriage, between Peter Berk, a tailor's cutter and designer, and Betty Dion, who was only 19 when she had Claire, the eldest of four children; the family name was later changed by deed poll to Chetwynd. She felt the modern western world dealt badly with death – "the idea that mortality is a failure" – and that to waste time or use it without pleasure was "almost immoral". A member of the Labour Party, she serves as its deputy leader, chair and national campaign coordinator. Much loved: Agony aunt, writer and broadcaster Claire Rayner, who has died aged 79, pictured in April Agony aunt Claire Rayner died yesterday at the age of 79, her family have announced. When she finally retired from her last newspaper agony column, in Today, in 1991, it simply gave her more time for more causes and to do what she saw herself as doing best – "biting the arses of those in power". She was an actress, known for Bob Martin (2000), Return to Waterloo (1984) and My Secret Desire (1989). Both she and Des struggled with depression throughout their lives and she approached it as she approached everything – with honesty and frankness. There are 10+ professionals named "Clare Rayner", who use LinkedIn to exchange information, ideas, and opportunities. Last May, she had intestinal surgery from which she failed to recover. "Poor man never had a chance! She was most prominent from 1949 to 2010. She was president of the National Association of Bereavement Counsellors, Gingerbread and the Patients' Association, and devoted much of her time to campaigning for improved care for the elderly, sitting on the Royal Commission on Funding of Care of the Elderly (1998-99). "We all have our ups and downs. The stories of people's lives.". She left her job on the Sunday Mirror, which she held from 1980 to 1988, when editorial pressure was put on her to cross this line and "spice up" the column. HAVING grown up in quiet West Somerset, Tom Rayner has gone on to become one of Britain’s most prominent TV reporters. Claire Rayner is a member of the following lists: People from London, Alumni of King's College London and English Jews. He was brought up in the Sudbury Hill area of Harrow and attended the independent Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School. Tributes are paid to agony aunt, broadcaster and patient campaigner Claire Rayner, who has died at 79. She was an anti-royalist, an atheist and president of the British Humanist Association (1999-2004). "Claire Rayner found meaning and inspiration in living and the enjoyment of life, in trying to fulfil her potential, and in the wonders of nature and the marvels of the cosmos," said its chief executive, Andrew Copson. Eventually, suffering from Graves' disease, she returned to have her thyroid removed. Claire Rayner, Actress: Bob Martin. Relationships. "It's all about my dad now," he said. But it was in 1962, when she wrote an article on mothercraft for Hers magazine, in the form of five letters with her answers, that she was set on her path. Related to Sex Journalist says his mother, who has died aged 79, was a 'fantastic communicator underpinned by huge, huge knowledge', Claire Rayner: 'She knew her stuff, that's what really made her so compelling.' To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediatheguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. As an adult, it became her trademark and her skill, with a truly colossal output. I'm the equivalent of the old girl who used to lean on the fence at the end of the village and say, 'Here, guess what I found out, it might be useful to you. In all, she had some 90 books published, as well as articles outside her advice work. She became an icon to a generation of young women and … She wasn't just playing it off the top of her head: she was a great hack, a great journalist. Medical school, however, was out – in the 1950s you could not be a married woman and a medical student. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. Click here to find personal data about Tom Rayner including phone numbers, addresses, directorships, electoral roll information, related property prices and other useful information. Claire Rayner: 'She knew her stuff, that's what really made her so compelling.'. Clare had 4 siblings: Robert Rayner and 3 other siblings. She wrote advice columns as Ruth Martin for Woman's Own (from 1966 until 1975, and then under her own byline 1975-88); Ida Clare for a nursing magazine; Johnny Rave for Rave magazine; Ann Lynton for Housewife; and Sheila Brandon for her fiction. "I treated it the way I would have treated an outpatient session," she said. Claire Berenice Rayner OBE (née Berk; born 22 January 1931) is an English journalist best known for her role for many years as an agony aunt. "Tell David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS I'll come back and bloody haunt him.". "It was very much in the nature of her that she said, 'I will try the dialysis'. By the time they realised she had been 15, "I had made myself far too useful for them to get rid of me.". Claire Rayner Net Worth is $16 Million Claire Rayner Bio/Wiki, Net Worth, Married 2018 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. Claire has 4 jobs listed on their profile. Claire Rayner was born on January 22, 1931 in London, England as Claire Berenice Berkovitch. Claire Rayner has died at the age of 79. She died in hospital near her home in Harrow in London. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Adam Rayner, of Ashfield Avenue, Bushey, said he waited more than a week for a card marking his 50th birthday from his father Des Rayner, 85, even though it was posted first class. Robert was born in 1817, in Ringland, Norfolk, England. We have found 115 people in the UK with the name Claire Rayner. Through the early 1960s she branched out into fiction, writing hospital romances under a pseudonym. She was outspoken, no-nonsense, sympathetic and generous with her time and her patronage, both to organisations and individuals. The British Humanist Association, of which Claire Rayner was a former vice-president and president, also paid tribute and spoke of its sadness at her death. Amanda proved to be a trouble-free infant and Rayner had time on her hands. Instead she got into nursing by telling the matron of Epsom cottage hospital that she was 17 and had lost her papers. She became an icon to a generation of young women and men and was accorded the accolades of being parodied by Ronnie Barker in the television series The Two Ronnies and the puppeteers Fluck and Law in their Spitting Image show, prompting her to say "I'd rather be Barkered than Flucked"; becoming part of rhyming slang (Claire Rayners = trainers); and being referred to in songs by Tom Robinson and Marion Montgomery. Early life. Claire Berenice Rayner, writer and broadcaster, born 22 January 1931; died 11 October 2010, Popular agony aunt, writer, broadcaster and patients' champion who began her career as a nurse, Claire Rayner at home in Harrow on the Hill in 2003. Clare married Mary L Rayner. When she tackled the hitherto taboo subject of premature ejaculation, 18,000 letters arrived in a week. We have found 22 people in the UK with the name Tom Rayner. I read a lot – novels – I like stories. View the profiles of professionals named "Clare Rayner" on LinkedIn. The Mitchell Beazley Atlas Of The Body And Mind. His outstanding A level results saw him land a … Claire Rayner was previously married to Desmond Rayner (1957 - 2010). Health Sec says he's "worried" about "stubbornly high" covid infections in North Northamptonshire, which "hasn't had a bad panedmic thus far". Hancock says he'll consider "all measures" as local MP @PeterBoneUK calls for mass testing in Wellinborough, Kettering & … Somehow, she also managed to cram in television and radio appearances, including Claire Rayner's Casebook (BBC, 1980-84), and slots on TV-am (1986-92) and Sky TV (1989-90). See the complete profile on LinkedIn and discover Tom…