Cathy Newman - Bloody Brilliant People: The Couples and Partnerships That History Forgot

CATHY NEWMAN is one of Channel 4 Newss main studio presenters. She joined the show as a political correspondent in January 2006 after eight years writing for the Financial Times. Cathy is an award-winning investigative journalist whose scoops have included allegations of sexual harassment in Westminster; an investigation into a British paedophile who abused vulnerable boys in Kenya; and allegations of violent abuse by the British barrister John Smyth. She was the only broadcast journalist to travel with Angelina Jolie and the then foreign secretary William Hague to the Congo as part of their campaign against sexual violence. In 2000, Cathy won the prestigious Laurence Stern Fellowship (now the Stern-Bryan Fellowship), spending four months following in the footsteps of Woodward and Bernstein at the Washington Post. Since 2020, she has been a presenter on Times Radio, hosting their Friday drive-time programme. Her first book Bloody Brilliant Women was published in 2018. She is married with two young children.

Bloody Brilliant Women

Sometimes, 1+1 = changing the world. Cathy Newmans witty, warm history on the power of determined couples will make you look at your relationship and wonder, Could we be doing more this weekend than just going to IKEA?

Caitlin Moran

A fascinating and illuminating insight into the relationships of extraordinary people. Cathy Newman shows us how and why (to use a familiar phrase) it takes two to tango

Bruno Tonioli

Witty and insightful, challenging and unexpected this book is a joy

Ruth Davidson

A fascinating look at the enduring popularity of the double act, its difficulties and intricacies, and just how interwoven duos are with every facet of popular culture and history. Cathy Newman takes us deeper into the relationships were familiar with, and lays bare the importance of these relationships in shaping our world

Sara Canning

This book is chock-full of odd couples who turn out to make perfect sense just like me and Susanna Were a team and thats the secret of a successful pairing. It Takes Two on telly and the world stage

Piers Morgan

Its a fascinating study of couples and collaboration, ending very often in anger and bitterness Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Joan Baez and Bob Dylan and so on

Michael Morpurgo, The i

There were laughs along the way, but Microsoft co-founders (and childhood friends) Paul Allen and Bill Gates drifted apart when the more hardcore Gates started to assert his dominance.

Bill Gates and Paul Allen: by Ann E. Yow-Dyson / Getty Images

Writer Virginia Woolf (left) and her artist sister Vanessa Bell had an intense sense of themselves as a duo and of what Virginia called a very close conspiracy.

Virginia Woolf and Vanessa Bell: Archive PL / Alamy Stock Photo

Choreographer George Balanchine and composer Igor Stravinsky rehearsing their 1957 ballet Agon, in which the African-American dancer Arthur Mitchell and the white ballerina Diana Adams danced the pas de deux.

George Balanchine and Igor Stravinsky: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo

Married couple William and Ellen Craft escaped from slavery by hiding in plain sight: fairer-skinned Ellen dressed as a man and pretended to be Williams master.

William and Ellen Craft: Alpha Stock / Alamy Stock Photo

Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, AKA the Ladies of Llangollen, out walking with their dog. Their close friendship was stylised and performative but emotionally sincere.

Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby: Chronicle / Alamy Stock Photo

A glass jellyfish created by the father-and-son duo of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka in the late nineteenth century. Even today, experts struggle to explain exactly how the Blaschkas made their models.

Glass model of Chrysaora isosceles: The Natural History Museum / Alamy Stock Photo

The spies who lived next door Peter and Helen Kroger presented as an ordinary suburban married couple but were later revealed to be Soviet agents.

Helen and Peter Kroger: Popperfoto / Contributor / Getty Images

Among scientist Henry Cavendishs repertoire of quirks were intense shyness and introversion. Without the help of friend Charles Blagden, none of his achievements would have been known about.

Henry Cavendish: Science History Images / Alamy Stock Photo

Darlings of French salon society, scientist couple Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier commissioned this portrait of themselves by Marie-Annes art teacher, Jacques-Louis David, showing them surrounded by laboratory equipment.

Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier: FineArt / Alamy Stock Photo

A still from Ken Russells 1968 film Song of Summer, which dramatises Eric Fenbys fraught stint as amanuensis to composer Frederick Delius. Meals chez Delius were conducted in silence as he could not bear the sound of conversation or the rattle of cutlery.

Ken Russells Song of Summer feat. Christopher Gable as Eric Fenby and Max Adrian as Frederick Delius: Everett Collection Inc / Alamy Stock Photo