Children in Need Auction

You’re roughly twice as likely to get murdered if you’re a man than if you’re a woman. But how’s that reflected in the media coverage? Jane talks to Professor Craig Jackson from Birmingham City University.

Monica McInerney is one of Australia’s top selling women’s fiction author . Her latest book tells the story of Angela who for more than thirty years has sent friends and family around the world a cheery and chatty Christmas letter about her family in rural Australia titled Hello from the Gillespies. This year, Angela surprises herself – she tells the truth. Monica joins Jane in the studio to discuss Christmas letters and truth telling.

A new documentary, “Vessel”, charts the work of Women on Waves, an organisation that aims to help women have abortions in countries where the practice is legally restricted. Jane speaks to Dr Rebecca Gomperts, the organisation’s founder and director.

Our own special tribute to the Woman’s Hour cooker. It’s been used by all the top chefs who have passed through the Woman’s Hour studio – including Jamie, Nigella, Hugh, Heston, Delia to name but a few….and one lucky listener will have the chance to win this piece of Radio 4 history in the Children in Need auction.

From 2016, every child born in Scotland will have a ‘Named Person’ – for example, a health visitor or a teacher – there to offer support and advice to their family. But opponents of the policy say it amounts to state invasion of privacy and they’re challenging it in the courts. Jane hears from Bill Alexander of Highland Council, where they’ve had a ‘Named Person’ scheme for some years, and from Ann Cannon, a mother of five who’s worried about how it will work.