Christine Cole Catley

Dame Christine McKelvie Cole Catley (née Bull; 19 December 1922 – 21 August 2011) was a New Zealand journalist, publisher and author. She co-founded the Parents Centre movement and influenced broadcasting policy in New Zealand.

Career Christine McKelvie Bull was born in 1922 in Wellington, New Zealand. She grew up on a farm in Hunterville, Rangitikei and began writing while still at school, freelancing for the Taranaki Daily News. She won a scholarship to the University of Canterbury and moved to Christchurch, where she also worked as a part-time reporter for The Press newspaper while studying.

In 1946, Cole Catley and Sarah moved to Wellington, and she began writing for the Labour Party's daily paper, The Southern Cross, the New Zealand Listener, and Radio New Zealand. In 1948 she married John Reece Cole, a protégé of writer Frank Sargeson, and they subsequently had two children, Nicola in 1950 and Martin in 1953. They hosted writers such as James K. Baxter and Louis Johnson (poet) in their home.

Cole Catley's first job in publishing was as an editor for A.H. and A.W. Reed, in Wellington.

Other interests In 1952, Cole Catley and Helen Brew founded Parents Centres New Zealand, an organisation committed to providing education and support for pregnant women and their husbands. The organisation also lobbied authorities to change hospital procedures around childbirth and delivery, such as enabling fathers to be present during labour. He suggested that she sell his bach and spend the money on a cruise. In the 2006 Queen's Birthday Honours, she was appointed a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to literature. In 2009, following the reinstatement of titular honours by the New Zealand government, Catley accepted redesignation as a Dame Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

In 2010, Catley received a Copyright Licensing Writers' Award to write her autobiography, which she was working on at the time of her death.