Hi, thanks for visiting my site! I was born in Arkansas, then spent my teenage years in a small Georgia town where the Waffle House counts as fine dining. I left home at 16 and moved to Paris, because it sounded terribly romantic. Life was sweet, even though my terrible French meant that my relationships were often lost in translation: I would ask for a box of tampons and my boyfriend came home with stamps.
I moved to New York the following year, attended New York University and spent several years writing for Fashion Wire Daily and New York magazine. My job as a celebrity reporter allowed me access to everyone from Playboy bunnies to heads of state, and I found myself interviewing Ozzy Osbourne on a leopard-print bed at Sundance, flying to LA for the Vanity Fair Oscar party and ambushing Tony Blair over cocktails. But my wildest stories happened in my private life.
My next adventure took me to London, where I picked up an MA in International Journalism from City University and started writing the ‘Sleeping Around’ dating column for The Independent newspaper.
My columns were turned into a book, Sleeping Around: Secrets of a Sexual Adventuress (John Murray, 2007), which, along with the sequel, Breaking the Rules: Confessions of a Bad Girl (2008), sold more than 100,ooo copies worldwide.
As a freelance writer, my work has appeared in publications including Elle.com, Grazia, Marie Claire, GQ, Marie Claire, Glamour, Cosmopolitan, The Times, the Daily Mail, thefix.com and the New York Post. I have appeared on various TV and radio programs, and know how to brew a perfect cup of tea.
After moving to Los Angeles, I completed the DGA Detectives Master Investigator training program and am currently working toward my California private investor license. I’m also writing a book about using detective skills in my love life.
The Love Detective 
Hi Catherine
I read your article on “Are Women More Visually Stimulated Than Men” at a docters surgery whislt waiting.
It grabbed my attention because Im fascinated about how we tic from an evolutionary stance. Sex also grabs all mens , and womens so you say, attention.
I saw a tv program some time ago that found that womens vaginas became wet at any video they were shown remotely relating to sex. Even a video of dogs shagging provoked this response in women. The women subjects of this experiment were most surprised at this when told how wet they got at varying and even objectional stimuli of looking at sex acts..
It was my theory at the time that they became wet like this at any hint of sex because in our evolutionary past women were likely to be raped quite a lot. There evolutionary response to this was to develop a wet vagina at the slightest sign of sex as a means of self protection. Less damage would occur to the vagina if it was wet. It must hurt an awful lot and be harmful to be raped when the vagina is at its dryest.
Your article changed my view a little bit but I feel there is some room for my theory.
Or is it a load of rubbish? maybe, its only a casual, working theorey
ok
I agree with the gentleman’s analysis.
Hi catherine i love your books will you be bring a new book soon
Catherine,
I just read Breaking the Rules and I couldn’t put it down. It paralleled my life in many ways(and of course, not at all in other ways) and I LOVED it!!! I am not an avid reader, so it’s a testament to you that I read it so fast and can’t wait to read Sleeping Around.
I wanted to thank you for helping me not feel alone in some of my adventures and well, I hope you’re well and loving life and yourself.
Cheers!
Hello,
I am in Manchester, England.
I am actually a subscriber to the Indy, but I used to bypass the sleeping around columns.
But I recently picked up “Breaking the Rules” in my local library and I read it cover to cover; I guess its the title of the column that had given me misconception.
I actually thought the best passage was your adventure in Cannes.
I hope you do not mind me saying you a re the Helen Fielding of the Noughties; having lived in London in the nineties and early noughties, in Chelsea and Earls Court, your book brought memories flooding back.
Best wishes!
Listed in the Registry of Gnarly Gnarlingtons 2011
Hi Catherine!
I loved you’re books. A friend introduced me to them a couple of years ago & I read them cover to cover in a matter of days.
Do you intend to bring any more books out in the near future?
Sophia x
Catherine, I just found about you earlier this week, and have been reading (constantly) everything I can about you, your passion, and your career.. I absolutely love it. Once I catch up on everything, I am going to make it a personal goal to take you out for cocktail / dinner – Completely platonic and harmless! I am hoping that some of your ideas and creations will become a movie, so I can be a part of it.
Talk to you soon! (Hopefully)
Hi Catherine,
I am half swiss, half french. I discoverd you when I was learning english in Eastbourne in the south of England. I read your column sleeping around every tuesday. I was fascinated. It helps me learning english and it was fun to read. Back in Switzerland I bought you first book. re reading it brings memory I will never forget. Thank you very much
Hi Catherine, on my facebook news feed I see a friend has read an article in the independent. Sleeping around: My moment of truth happened at university. Curious I read the article and end up google ‘ing’ you. I was hoping you might still be a small time journalist, single and that i might sweep you off your feet. Then I read your a hot shot writer, getting married and living in LA…damn timing is everything. I was in LA a few years ago, cant beat climbing the ropes on the beach 🙂 Today I am doing my PhD at Warwick while working on my first book – How to Radicalise Friends and Terrorise People. http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/herringtonlewis
Wonderful to read up on you… but was curious why would someone use detective skills in ones love life?
Hello, and thanks for reading! Well, using detective skills in my love life worked for me! Everything from background checking your dates (not necessarily professionally; more about asking the right questions early and being observant) , learning to trust your gut instead of organs farther south, how to ‘follow the evidence’ in dating and observe rather than focusing in on one suspect too early, and being more logical…If you want to know more you can read The Love Detective when it comes out! 🙂
Interesting… Yet seems like a lot of work that will be lost in the moment but that is just my inside stating the obvious… I look forward to reading it! 😉
I can’t honestly say I’ve read your books thus far, but will certainly look out for them now I am aware. The use of detective work in selecting partners sounds a little daunting to me – I think I might take flight at the first production of a DNA swab. Still, it beats frog-kissing, I suppose…