Claire Berenice Rayner, OBE (/ˈreɪnər/; née 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 columnist.

Her father had adopted the surname Chetwynd, under which name she was educated at the City of London School for Girls.

was published in 2003, and revealed details of a childhood marred by physical and mental cruelty at the hands of her parents.

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.

[2] 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.

She left the Sunday Mirror shortly after the appointment of Eve Pollard as editor, and joined the Today newspaper for three years.

[10] A lifelong Labour Party supporter, she resigned in 2001 and joined the Liberal Democrats in fear of the proposed changes to the NHS from the administration of Prime Minister Tony Blair.

[2] Rayner was also a prominent supporter of the British republican movement, although admitted her dual standards on accepting her OBE in 1996.

[13] She had queried parents' decision to have a disabled child: 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').

[14]It was a response to the decision of journalist Dominic Lawson and his wife 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.

[1] 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.