Audiobooks by Catherine Mayer

"'Intriguing, enchanting, soulful … A book of timeless beauty' Elif Shafak Includes an 'In Conversation' with the author and Sandi Toksvig. Onstage at a Las Vegas convention, Elo Ó hAllmhuráin, a worldfamous tech magnate, demonstrates a time machine, catapulting himself and journalist Dory Silver into the distant future. Stranded and desperate to get home to her dying partner, Dory is forced to re-examine the past. Time/Life is a love letter to science fiction rooted in a very real present of rising populism and the unintended consequences of technology. Above all, it is a powerful meditation on the nature of love itself. * * * * 'Multiplexly brilliant, intricately fascinating, harrowingly emotional fiction, sprung from this century’s first and possibly final quarter' William Gibson, author of Neuromancer 'Mayer’s reimagining of H.G. Wells’ Time Machine is a profoundly moving exploration of loss and love. Time/Life delivers a wild blend of unreality with chilling elements that are all too real' Bee Rowlatt, author of In Search of Mary and One Woman Crime Wave 'Mayer’s genre-bending riff on H.G. Wells is as clever as it is poignant. A dark and sharply contemporary pleasure' Luke Jennings, author of the Villanelle series (the basis for Killing Eve) 'Catherine Mayer’s unique and prescient Time/Life playfully repurposes H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine for the post-truth generation, creating and recreating worlds like a computer game. Yet it is also a devastating meditation on grief and the ephemeral quality of time. It might make you cry but it will also make you laugh' Elizabeth Fremantle, bestselling author of Queen’s Gambit (made into the movie Firebrand) * * * * Praise for Catherine Mayer 'Beautiful, incredibly moving and unexpectedly comforting' Marian Keyes ‘Breathtaking, heartbreaking and also full of love and hope, what a journey this book takes us on – with love, time travel and a toxic tech magnate’ Sandi Toksvig"

Catherine Mayer (Author), Annie Aldington (Narrator)

Audiobook

Charles: The Heart of a King

"Brought to you by Penguin. The Sunday Times Top Ten Bestseller He has lived his whole life in the public eye, yet he remains an enigma. He was born to be king, but he aims much higher. A landmark publication, Charles: The Heart of a King reveals Prince Charles in all his complexity: the passionate views that mean he will never be as remote and impartial as his mother; the compulsion to make a difference and the many and startling ways in which the heir to the throne of the United Kingdom and fifteen other realms has already made his mark. The book offers fresh and fascinating insights into the first marriage that did so much to define him and an assessment of his relationship with the woman he calls, with unintended accuracy, his 'dearest wife': Camilla. We see Charles as a father and a friend, a serious figure and a joker. Life at court turns out to be full of hidden dangers and unexpected comedy. Now, updated and revised with a new preface and two new chapters - covering details of Harry and Meghan's exit and its implications, the cash-for-honours scandal, Prince Andrew, and more - this significant study reveals a monarchy threatened and a man in sight of happiness yet still driven by anguish and a remarkable belief system, a charitable entrepreneur, activist, agitator and avatar of the Establishment who just as often tilts against it. Based on multiple interviews with his friends and courtiers, palace insiders and critics, and rare access to Charles himself, this biography explores the Prince's philanthropy and his compulsive interventionism, his faith, his significant impact on politics and the philosophy that means when he seeks harmony he sometimes creates controversy. Gripping, at times astonishing, often laugh-out-loud, this is a royal biography unlike any other. 'Breathtaking' The Times '[The book that] made headlines around the world.' Independent 'A must-read ... this important book is nothing short of a manual to our future King's world-view' GQ 'A sustained piece of higher journalism' Independent © Catherine Mayer 2015 (P) Penguin Audio 2022"

Catherine Mayer (Author), Sally Scott (Narrator)

Audiobook

Good Grief: Embracing life at a time of death

"‘The most life-affirming book ever written about death.’ Sandi Toksvig ‘One of the most powerful and helpful books about grief that you will ever read.’ Anita Anand ‘Grief is more than the price of love. It is love. We must learn not just to live with it, but to make it welcome.’ Mother and daughter Anne Mayer Bird and Catherine Mayer were widowed within 41 days of each other on the eve of the pandemic, then locked down alone. Their profound isolation was broken just once a week, when Catherine visited Anne to care for her, at distance and in a mask. Together they found ways to navigate their loss and the startling questions and challenges that confronted them. In this memoir, Catherine also investigates the possibility that her husband, renowned musician Andy Gill, contracted Covid-19 when his band, Gang of Four, toured China in late 2019. Her main focus, however, is not on death, but on life and love. This is a captivating account of lives well lived, moving and spiked with black humour. It is interwoven with letters Anne wrote to her husband John to tell him of the astonishing and heartrending events since his death and her small triumphs in living independently. In sharing their insights and experiences, Catherine and Anne aim to help those who have lost or will lose people or who wish to know how best to support others in such circumstances. They also celebrate love—for John and Andy and each other. ‘We are extraordinarily lucky, my mother and I. We have each other and we have this room. ‘In this living room, we are learning to embrace the things we can’t touch, each other and the lovely dead.’"

Anne Mayer Bird, Catherine Mayer (Author), Anne Mayer-Bird (Narrator)

Audiobook

Attack of the 50 Ft. Women: How Gender Equality Can Save The World!

"‘Buy it for yourself, your husband or partner. Most importantly, buy it for your children’ Sunday Express Essential reading from Catherine Mayer, recently named one of the Top 100 Most Influential People in Global Policy on Gender Equality. Not a single country anywhere in the world has achieved gender equality. In more than a few countries, progress for women has stalled or is reversing. Voters in the United States chose a misogynist over a female candidate for President. Yet in many of these countries, the majority of politicians and business leaders profess to believe in gender equality—as well they might. One report predicts a boost to global GDP of £8.3 trillion by 2025 simply by making faster progress towards narrowing the gender gap. Researchers point to many other potential benefits too, not least in improved relations between the sexes and a healthier, more peaceful planet. If gender equality promises benefits not just to women, but to everyone, why aren’t we embracing it? And how can we speed the pace of change? Fewer than nine percent of world leaders are female, but the few women who have broken through include towering figures such as Angela Merkel. Could 50-foot women save the day? These questions have gripped journalist and author Catherine Mayer since she accidentally founded the Women’s Equality Party in March 2015 and watched it grow in months from an idea to a vibrant political force with more than 70 branches across the UK. In ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMEN, her insightful, revelatory, often hilarious, and hugely inspiring book, she tackles those questions and many more, sharing inside views and experiences from building a party, and bringing together global research with analyses and interviews based on her own far-flung research. And she goes further. Campaigning for the Women’s Equality Party ahead of elections in May 2016, she noticed that many people found it hard, in the absence of any real-life examples, to envisage a gender-equal world. So she takes us there, to the place she calls Equalia. What is it like? Does gender equality make for a society that is more equal in other ways too? Who does the low-paid jobs? How does gender express itself in a place freed from gender programming? What’s the sex like? What’s on the telly? For some fascinating answers and brilliant thought experiments—and a blueprint for reaching Equalia—read ATTACK OF THE FIFTY FOOT WOMEN."

Catherine Mayer (Author), Tanya Moodie (Narrator)

Audiobook