Caitlin Davies

Who is Caitlin Davies?

Caitlin Davies is an English author, journalist and teacher. Her parents are Margaret Forster and Hunter Davies, both well-known writers. Caitlin's father wrote regularly about her and her brother Jake and sister Flora in a weekly Punch magazine column which ran in the 1970s, giving a broad insight into their upbringing.

Although born in England, Davies has been associated with Botswana since 1990 when she met her husband, the former MP Ronald Ridge, while studying for a Masters in English at Clark University, USA. Relocating to Botswana and working as a teacher, and then a freelance journalist, she wrote for Botswana's first tabloid newspaper The Voice and then as editor of The Okavango Newspaper. She was twice arrested as a journalist, once for 'causing fear and alarm', and acquitted.

While living in Botswana she wrote the novel Jamestown Blues and the historical work The Return of El Negro. The victim of a brutal assault and rape, she was active in research concerning domestic violence in Botswana and a founder member of Women Against Rape in Botswana.

She returned to England with her daughter after divorcing her husband and published a memoir about her experiences, called Place of Reeds, and for six years wrote education and careers features for The Independent newspaper.