Dawn French, Claire Findlay, Second Chances, Caroline Slocock
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 28 April 2021
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Emma Barnett talks to Dawn French about her fourth novel "Because of You" which has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and we'll find out later today if it's made the shortlist. She'll also be talking about the post-menopausal years when women often say they feel invisible, afraid of change, unemployable or just plain 'past it'. If you're an Archers listener you'll be familiar with Alice's story of having a baby as an alcoholic and the stigma and struggle she faces. Our reporter Milly Chowles had a baby last year. She’s in long -term recovery from addiction and feels she was given lots of chances to change. Her fear is that women now aren’t getting those opportunities and the impact on them, their children and society is devastating. In 2011 there were 65,520 children in care in England and at the end of March 2020 that figure was more than 80,000. Addiction is often a factor. Today, we hear a Dad's story. It's nearly 30 years since the start of the Bosnia-Hercevgovina war, a conflict that saw the worst atrocities in Europe since World War II. About 100,000 were killed and over 2 million were displaced between 1992 and 1995.Watching the coverage on the news, thousands of miles away in Fochabars in North East Scotland was Clare Findlay and her husband Andrew who ended up taking in 21 Bosnian children and four mothers into their home. Her story features in a new series ‘Saved by A Stranger which tells the story of people caught up in some of the biggest events in history. And Caroline Slocock the Director of Civil Exchange and the first woman Private Secretary at No 10 serving Margaret Thatcher talks about the current "curtaingate" row at Westminster.
Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Engineer: Donald MacDonald.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts |
| 0:05.2 | Hello, I'm Emma Barnett, and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:10.2 | Good morning. Early this month, some of you were very |
| 0:12.8 | aggrieved when we talked about the feeling that certain women have of being invisible |
| 0:16.9 | and irrelevant when they reach middle-aged and beyond. |
| 0:20.3 | I always welcome your views, the stronger the better I say, |
| 0:23.5 | that Ali was especially annoyed writing in to say, |
| 0:25.6 | I do wish women would stop perpetuating the myth that at certain age |
| 0:29.2 | women become invisible. It's all a question of attitude. |
| 0:32.4 | I expect women's hour to challenge the notion that invisibility |
| 0:35.6 | is our lot in life. How dare you? Woman's Hour, you should be ashamed. |
| 0:40.9 | Well, we do challenge it pretty regularly, but we do also have to represent those who feel that way, |
| 0:45.6 | because you know, just because we want something to be the case, |
| 0:48.3 | that doesn't always mean it is. And yet for increasing numbers of women, |
| 0:52.1 | it seems life beyond 50 is proving very successful and fulfilling. |
| 0:57.1 | An act of reinvention, as one of you have already called it on our messages today, |
| 1:00.8 | our first guest, Dawn French, can certainly relate to that, |
| 1:03.4 | having started a whole new career as an author in her 50s |
| 1:06.3 | and has just been long-listed to the women's prize. |
| 1:09.4 | We'll be talking to her shortly, but women now are likely to live longer, |
| 1:13.7 | not having periods, than having them. Take that in, quite mind-blowing. |
| 1:18.0 | How do you feel that this age, if you've reached it, is treating you? |
... |
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