{{Short description|Scottish writer and documentary maker}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}} {{Use British English|date=August 2017}}
thumb|Kate Muir
'''Kate Muir''' is a Scottish writer, women's health campaigner and documentary maker. Her book, ''How to Have a Magnificent Midlife Crisis'' was published in 2025, following ''Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (But Were Too Afraid to Ask)'' in 2022, and ''Everything You Need to Know About the Pill (But Were Too Afraid to Ask)'' in 2024. She is the creator and producer of two documentaries on the menopause including Davina McCall: ''Sex, Myths and the Menopause'' for Channel 4 current affairs, as well the ''Pill Revolution'' documentary. She was chief film critic of ''The Times'' for seven years, and is the author of three novels.
==Early life== Muir grew up in Dalmuir, West Dunbartonshire, and attended Westbourne School in Glasgow. At the University of Glasgow, she graduated with an LLB in Jurisprudence and Politics, and later completed a postgraduate journalism diploma at Cardiff University.
==Career== Whilst at university Muir was the co-editor of the student newspaper the Glasgow University Guardian. Muir's first job was on the ''Ealing Guardian'', and then she worked as a reporter for two start-up newspapers: ''News on Sunday'' in Manchester and ''The Sunday Correspondent'' in London, before arriving at ''The Times'' in 1990 as a weekly interviewer. She was posted to New York in 1992, then Paris in 1995, then Washington D.C. in 1999 as a foreign features writer for ''The Times''. In Paris, she began a weekly personal column in ''The Times Magazine'' which continued for 11 years.
In 2010, Muir became the chief film critic of ''The Times'', covering reviews and film festivals. At a Cannes press conference in 2011 her question regarding Nazi aesthetics resulted in a huge ''faux pas'' for Danish director Lars von Trier and his subsequent ban as ''persona non grata'' from the film festival. During her time as a critic, Muir became a campaigner for Women and Hollywood, which advocates for equality and diversity in Hollywood and the wider movie industry. She has also worked with Time's Up UK and Birds' Eye View, a charity which promoted the distribution of female-led films. Muir left ''The Times'' in 2017 to work as a writer and filmmaker.
Muir has written three novels: ''West Coast'', ''Left Bank'' and ''Suffragette City'', and the non-fiction books, ''The Insider's Guide to Paris'' and ''Arms and the Woman'', about the battle for female equality in the military. ''How to Have a Magnificent Midlife Crisis'' (Simon and Schuster) was published in June 2025, ''Everything You Need To Know About the Menopause...'' (Simon and Schuster) was published in January 2022, and ''Everything You Need To Know About the Pill'' in April 2024 (Simon and Schuster). Muir has also produced three documentaries of women's health with Finestripe productions in Glasgow for Channel 4.<ref>{{cite news|last=Muir|first=Kate|url=https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/may/09/mission-menopause-my-hormones-went-off-a-cliff-and-im-not-going-to-be-ashamed|title=Mission menopause: 'My hormones went off a cliff – and I'm not going to be ashamed'|work=The Observer|date=8 May 2021|access-date=8 May 2021}}</ref> She is a professional speaker and advocate on women's health, contraception and the menopause.
==Personal life== Muir has three grown-up children and lives with her husband Cameron Scott in London. She was previously married to author Ben Macintyre.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rcwlitagency.com/Author.aspx?auid=983|title=Author page|publisher=|access-date=15 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120303110702/http://www.rcwlitagency.com/Author.aspx?auid=983|archive-date=3 March 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>
==Publications== * ''How to Have a Magnificent Midlife Crisis'', Simon and Schuster, 5 June 2025, {{ISBN|978-1-3985-2550-4}} * ''Everything You Need to Know About the Menopause (but were too afraid to ask)'', Simon and Schuster, 20 January 2022, {{ISBN|978-1398505643}} * ''Everything You Need to Know About the Pill (But Were Too Afraid to Ask)'', Simon and Schuster, 11 April 2024, {{ISBN|978-1-3985-2951-9}} * ''West Coast'', Headline Review, 4 September 2008, {{ISBN|0755325044}}<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.headline.co.uk/HeadlinePublishing/authors/index.page|title=Search Our Fiction & Non-Fiction Authors - Headline Publishing|website=Headline Publishing Group}}{{Dead link|date=August 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> * ''Left Bank'', Headline Review, 2 January 2006, {{ISBN|0755325028}} (released as a paperback on 25 September 2006)<ref>{{cite web|url=http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/left_bank.html|title=Left Bank|publisher=|access-date=15 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120503001939/http://us.penguingroup.com/static/rguides/us/left_bank.html|archive-date=3 May 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref> * ''Suffragette City'', Macmillan, 9 July 1999, {{ISBN|0330389718}} *Arms and the Woman, 27 April 1992, Sinclair-Stevenson Ltd, {{ISBN|978-1-85619-115-9}} *The Insider's Guide to Paris, Robson Books, 5 July 1999, {{ISBN|1861051654}}
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [https://archive.today/20130505071141/http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/public/profile/Kate-Muir ''The Times''] * [http://www.scotsman.com/news/return-of-the-native-kate-muir-interview-1-1172696 ''Scotsman'' June 2008] * [https://twitter.com/muirkate Twitter] * [http://www.bahighlife.com/Food-and-Drink/A-taste-of-home.html?PageNumber=4 Scottish food in 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720151405/http://bahighlife.com/Food-And-Drink/A-taste-of-home.html?PageNumber=4 |date=20 July 2011 }} * [http://www.womenandhollywood.com] * [http://www.themenopausecharity.org]
{{s-start}} {{s-media}} {{succession box | before= James Christopher | title=Film critic: The Times | years= February 2010- | after=Incumbent }} {{s-end}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Muir, Kate}} Category:Alumni of Cardiff University Category:Alumni of the University of Glasgow Category:Scottish columnists Category:Scottish film critics Category:People from Hampstead Category:People from Clydebank Category:Scottish women novelists Category:The Times people Category:Living people Category:Scottish women columnists Category:Scottish women critics Category:British women film critics Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:People educated at Westbourne School for Girls