03/08/2012

Available for over a year

Presented by Jenni Murray. For the first time in Olympic history, every country at the 2012 Games is represented by female athletes. But not all of them will chose to return home and anecdotal evidence suggests that cases of women absconding from sporting events to claim asylum or hide out in the host nation are increasing. Gauri Van Gulik at Human Rights Watch joins Jenni to discuss the issue. Earlier this year, Liza Klaussmann's debut novel - Tigers in Red Weather - was the subject of a fierce bidding war. It is now being tipped as the summer read for 2012. Liza Klaussmann joins Jenni to talk about the story and about how F Scott Fitzgerald and Raymond Chandler have influenced her writing. One of the success stories of the London Olympics has been the games makers - 70,000 unpaid volunteers who welcome spectators, transport athletes and help out quietly behind the scenes to keep the whole thing going. A survey from the WRVS has revealed that volunteers who are over 60 are healthier and happier than people of the same age who don't do any volunteering work. Lily and Maureen who run the WRVS cafe at Salford Royal, talk about their volunteering. Jenni is joined by Verity Haines from the WRVS and by 64 year old Salle Dare - who does a lot of volunteering work - to discuss the benefits of volunteering.