A Girl Called Jack; Sam Bailey; Constance Markievicz

Last year Laurie Graham’s husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It was six years on from when Laurie first noticed that something was wrong; her husband had repeatedly forgotten that a good friend had died. Now Laurie is coming to terms with living with a man who can’t remember their wedding day. She talks to Jane about how dementia unfolds, the peculiar kind of loneliness she finds herself living with and the dilemmas she faces for the future.

In 2011 Jack Monroe found herself ‘unemployed, broke and broken’. She started writing a blog about feeding herself and her son on £10 a week and her cheap, delicious recipes attracted a wide following. She now writes a regular column in The Guardian, has a book out next year and has announced she is the new face of Sainsbury’s - following on from Jamie Oliver. Her online petition spurred a Parliamentary debate on the causes of food poverty. Our reporter Henrietta Harrison went to meet Jack and uncover the secrets of her kitchen.

The Blog: A Girl Called Jack

Music included Home by Kate Rusby, taken from the album While Mortals Sleep and Eric Clapton's Come On In My Kitchin, from the album Me And Mr Johnson.

Sam Bailey was crowned the winner of this year's X Factor on Sunday, beating 17-year-old Nicholas McDonald. The 36-year-old had been working as a prison officer before winning the £1m recording contract prize and the opportunity to support Beyonce in Birmingham on her upcoming European tour.

Jineth Bedoya Lima is a high profile reporter in Colombia, which is one of the world’s most dangerous places to be a journalist. In 2000 she was kidnapped, tortured and raped by a right-wing paramilitary group. Jineth has since campaigned to draw attention to conflict-related sexual violence in Colombia – a weapon of war that is widespread, systematic and largely invisible.

Constance was presented at court to Queen Victoria in the monarch’s Jubilee year, 1887 and she married a Polish Count. She was active in the Irish suffragette movement and after taking part in the Easter Rising, she was court-martialled. In the General Election of December 1918 Constance Markievicz became the first woman ever returned to the Commons at Westminster, however, as a member for Sinn Féin she did not take her seat. Dr. Lauren Arrington of the University of Liverpool recently gave The 37th Countess Markievicz Memorial Lecture in Dublin and she is currently writing a biography.

Woman’s Hour Timeline 

BBC History Countess Constance Markievicz

Constance Markievicz