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October 2010: Isle of Man publisher pays tribute to Claire Rayner

by isleofman.com 3rd January 2011

ISLE of Man based publishing firm MP Publishing - who released Claire Rayner's novels as ebooks - paid tribute to the well-loved agony aunt who died at the age of 79 in October.

 

In addition to being Britain's best known advice and medical expert Claire was also a prolific writer and the author of more than 90 books.

 

Her books were on a broad range of medical subjects from sex education for children and adults through to home nursing, family health and baby and child care, as well as a great deal of successful fiction.

 

A number of these titles have been published in the USA, Japan, Scandinavia, France, Germany, Italy and Spain among others.

 

Among her fiction work is the ambitious 12-volume series The Performers, the six-volume The Poppy Chronicles and the thrilling five-volume pathology series The Dr Barnabas Mysteries.

 

Claire also wrote a series of novels under the name Sheila Brandon plus two gothic novels and a detective story.

 

MP Publishing has plans to reprint the Dr Barnabas series in the UK and North America for its forthcoming spring catalogue and Claire was incredibly excited that another generation would be able to read her books.

 

Her entire collection was put into ebook format at the beginning of 2010 and released across all formats worldwide and are selling extremely well.

 

Mark Pearce, CEO of MP Publishing, said: "Claire's warmth and happiness was infectious. When we met I always went away with a beaming smile on my face. She had a great sense of humour."

 

Maria Smith, director of MP Publishing, said: "Claire's gift of storytelling had me captivated from the start of our projects together. I feel very privileged to have been given the opportunity to work with such a talented lady."

 

Claire was delighted her work was being republished and transformed into ebooks. She said: "It's just wonderful so many of my books going well into the 21st Century for future generations."

 

Claire originally trained as a nurse at the Royal Northern Hospital, London and went on to study midwifery at Guy's hospital as well as working at the Royal Free Hospital and at the Whittington Hospital where she was a sister in the paediatric department.

 

She had a long and varied career. Her concern and insight into medical issues led her to launch a number of high-profile campaigns including raising awareness of incontinence, tackling the problems of migraine and the Medical Passport scheme.

 

Claire was president of the Patients' Association and awarded an OBE in 1996 for services to women's issues and to health issues.

 

Her gift for communication resulted in probably her best-known role as agony aunt for the problem pages in The Sun, the Sunday Mirror and Today newspapers.

 

She was also a frequent contributor to radio and television broadcasts on matters of health, relationships and contemporary morality.

 

As a journalist she contributed to many popular magazines including Woman and Woman's Own. She also had work published in professional journals including The Lancet and Nursing Times.

 

She told her relatives she wanted her last words to be: "Tell David Cameron that if he screws up my beloved NHS I'll come back and bloody haunt him."

 

Claire had been suffering from cancer for several years. She leaves a husband, Des, and three children, Amanda, Adam and Jay.

 

 

Posted by isleofman.com
Monday 3rd, January 2011 12:01pm.

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