Her research has focused on twentieth-century history and politics, the mass media, conflict studies and nationalism.
Catterall was educated at Eltham College and Robinson College, Cambridge, graduating from Cambridge University with a history Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1984.
[3] She then completed a doctorate (PhD) at Queen Mary University of London in 1989, having successfully defended her thesis on religion and politics in inter-war Britain.
[4] She was a Conservative councillor in the London Borough of Bexley until 2014, where she served as Cabinet Member for Leisure.
[10] In Northcliffe's Legacy, she explores the role of news media in the "persistence" of popular misunderstandings of Einstein's Theory of relativity.