Weekend Woman’s Hour: Abandoned babies, Isabel Allende, ADHD and menopause, Teaching 'grit', Anna Lapwood

Woman's Hour

BBC

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness, Personal Journals

4.2 • 2.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 May 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Police have said they are searching for the parents of three new-born babies, all abandoned in East London between 2017 to 2024. The search is focusing on about 400 nearby houses. Anita Rani spoke to Met Police Detective Superintendent Lewis Basford and clinical psychologist Professor Lorraine Sherr, head of the Health Psychology Unit at UCL.

Nuala McGovern was joined by the best-selling author Isabel Allende about her latest book My Name is Emilia Del Valle. It follows a young female journalist intent on covering the civil war in Chile in 1891 despite having to write under a man’s name.

It’s thought that around 3 to 4% of people in the UK have ADHD - Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. But many women remain undiagnosed for decades, with those in their 40s, 50s and 60s only now discovering they have it for the first time. Jo Beazley was diagnosed with ADHD just two years ago at the age of 49, after her symptoms worsened during the menopause. She joined Nuala along with Amanda Kirby, former chair of the ADHD Foundation and a professor in the field of neurodiversity.

Imagine you’re preparing to host a party at your house when a lost elderly woman shows up at your door. What would you do? This actually happened to writer and director Nadia Conners. Nadia explained to Nuala why the interaction stuck with her for years and has now inspired her debut feature film, The Uninvited.

How do we teach children to have grit? That's what the Government is suggesting needs to be a new focus in schools, to bolster children's mental health. To discuss how parents can help their children develop resilience, Anita was joined by Sue Atkins, parenting coach and author of Parenting Made Easy and child psychologist Laverne Antrobus.

Anna Lapwood is one of the world’s most famous organists and an internet sensation, with over two million social media followers. Hailed as ‘classical music’s Taylor Swift', she told Anita about co-curating a special BBC Prom, the music she has included in her album Firedove which is out later this month, and what it meant to her to be appointed the first ever official ‘Organist of the Royal Albert Hall.’

Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Annette Wells Editor: Rebecca Myatt

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, it's Lucy Worsley here and we're back with a brand new series of ladies swindlers.
0:07.5	Promise never to mention a word of what is going on.
0:10.1	Join me and my all-female team of detectives as we revisit the audacious crimes of women trying to make it in a world made for men.
0:19.5	This is a story of working class women trying to get by.
0:24.4	This is survival.
0:25.3	Join me for the second season of Lady Swindlers, where true crime meets history with a twist.
0:31.4	Listen first on BBC Sounds.
0:36.3	BBC Sounds, music, Radio Podcasts.
0:40.7	Hello, I'm Anita Rani, and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4, just to say that for rights reasons, the music in the original radio broadcast has been removed for this podcast.
0:52.3	Hello and welcome. Over the next hour, you're going to hear a few choice highlights from the week.
0:58.1	Coming up, the best-selling Chilean American novelist Isabel Ayende on her latest work.
1:04.3	My name is Amelia DeBale.
1:06.6	We'll be exploring an ADHD diagnosis during the menopause.
1:10.2	There's the film director Nadia Connors on her first feature, The Uninvited,
1:15.2	based in part on her experience of an elderly uninvited guest,
1:19.2	turning up at her door as she was getting ready to throw a party
1:22.1	and the confusion and conflicting emotions that threw up.
1:25.7	Also, as the government steps in to try and improve mental health in schools,
1:30.0	we discuss how do you build much-needed grit in children?
1:34.6	And Anna Lapwood, one of the world's most famous organists
1:38.5	who's just been announced as the first official organ player at the Royal Albert Hall.
1:43.4	Lots to get through, so let's begin.
	...

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