Catherine Mayer, author of 'Time/ Life' - Prolific writer discusses eclectic interests, inspirational poetry, and grief
Writer's Routine
Dan Simpson
4.9 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2025
⏱️ 62 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Catherine Mayer is a busy do-er. One of those prolific writers, political party founders, and music producers that fills every moment of the day with something. She's inspirational with it.
Catherine was the Europe Editor for Time Magazine, which has taught her to work at all hours of the day on various time-zones. She's written memoirs, journalism, royal biographies. She runs the estate of her late husband, Andy Gill from the band 'Gang of Four', and even finished and executive-produced his posthumous album, 'The Problem of Leisure'. She co-founded the Women's Equality Party and the Primadonna Festival. In 2020, Catherine was named in GQ Magazine's '50 Most Influential People in Britain'.
Her new novel is 'Time/ Life', a feminist retelling of H.G. Wells' 'The Time Machine', as a story of love and grief.
We cover everything about the writing side of her life, how she juggles the abundance of things that are going on, and how much her view of creativity has changed since her partner passed away.
This episode is sponsored by Ulysses. Go to https://ulys.app/writeabook to download Ulysses, and use the code ROUTINE at checkout to get 25% off the first year of your yearly subscription.
Also, this episode is supported by Faber Academy. Make the most of their fantastic writing courses in 2026 at https://faberacademy.com/writing-a-novel/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week's episode of writer's routine is sponsored by Faber Academy, whose flagship course |
| 0:05.8 | is back. It's the writing a novel course that you can get onto in person if you're in the UK |
| 0:11.7 | and even online if you're further afield. It's not just a course, it's a commitment to your craft. |
| 0:17.9 | Faber Academy is a place where you can learn the essentials of novel writing like no other. |
| 0:23.1 | Now this podcast lets you hear from the best authors around. This course can help you become one |
| 0:28.1 | yourself. It covers everything that you need to bring your novel to life. Character, story, |
| 0:33.7 | structure, plotting, voice, dialogue, conflict and so much more. Through the course, you'll hear from |
| 0:39.6 | guest speakers, some of the biggest names in publishing, authors, editors, and it's designed to help |
| 0:45.8 | you hone your craft and find direction. We've had so many authors on the show who cannot speak |
| 0:51.6 | highly enough about the Faber Academy, and now is your chance to be one of |
| 0:56.0 | them. At the end of the course, part of your work is sent out to agents across the UK and you'll |
| 1:01.1 | have the opportunity to pitch your novel to some of the biggest literary names around. |
| 1:06.3 | There's daytime and evening courses in London and an online course too that you can take part in wherever you are. |
| 1:12.2 | Now you need to be quick to sign up. Deadlines start in early January. So to take part online, |
| 1:18.2 | your application deadline is the 4th of January. That starts on the 19th. And then for the London |
| 1:23.6 | courses, both evening and daytime, your deadline is Sunday the 11th of January. |
| 1:29.2 | So make the most of this chance. It's not just a course, it's a commitment to your craft. |
| 1:34.1 | Faberacademy.com forward slash writing dash a dash novel. The link is in the episode notes wherever |
| 1:39.9 | you're listening. Faberacademy.com forward slash writing dash a-novel. |
| 1:52.7 | Hello and welcome to a brand new episode of writer's routine. This week we're with |
| 1:58.1 | Catherine Mayer, busy doer, prolific writer, music producer, |
| 2:03.2 | political party founder, and now author, new novel. It's called Time Life. We talk about her pride |
... |
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