About the author

The author was formerly known by her married name, Catherine Osborne. Since 2012 she has reverted to her maiden name, "Catherine Rowett", roughly meaning "Catherine Wheel". Catherine was brought up in a High Church Anglican family, whose broad-minded approach to ecumenism ensured equal familiarity with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox Churches. Benediction and preparation for first confession were routine at her Roman Catholic Convent School, and the family summer holiday included an hour and a half of Orthodox Liturgy or Anglican Eucharist before breakfast every day for a fortnight. While reading for the Classics Tripos at King's College Cambridge, Catherine was supervised by Rowan Williams (whom she had known since adolescence) for a paper in Patristics. She went on to study for her PhD with Christopher Stead, then Ely Professor of Divinity. Her books include Rethinking Early Greek Philosophy (Duckworth 1987), Eros Unveiled: Plato and the God of Love (Oxford University Press 1994), Presocratic Philosophy: A very short introduction (OUP 2004) and Dumb Beasts and Dead Philosophers (OUP 2007). She lives and works in Norwich where she is Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia.