The number of women sleeping rough has risen over the last decade and as the economic impact of Covid 19 takes hold, social policy advisers fear the situation could worsen. Female rough sleepers with their complex profile have it worse on the street, and in wider homelessness terms the number of lone women and women with children has soared in temporary accommodation. Katya Adler talks to Dame Louise Casey who, as “Homelesssness Tsar”, championed the “Everyone In” policy which got rough sleepers off the street and into temporary accommodation during the height of the pandemic and Petra Salva, the head of the Rough Sleepers Unit at the charity St. Mungos.

A new film version of The Secret Garden is released on Friday. Written by Frances Hodgson Burnett, the book was first published in 1911 and is seen as a classic of English children’s literature. But the story of the author behind the book is far less well known and utterly fascinating. Katya Adler is joined by Ann Thwaite, whose biography of Frances Hodgson Burnett, Beyond the Secret Garden, first came out in 1974 but has been reissued this year, and Lucy Mangan, author of Bookworm, who has loved the novel since she was a little girl.

The World Trade Organisation will shortly have a new leader and for the first time in its history it’s going to be a woman. There are two remaining candidates. They are Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala from Nigeria, and Yoo Myung-hee from South Korea. To discuss the candidates, Katya is joined by Allie Renison, Head of Trade and EU Policy at Institute of Directors.

On Friday a major new exhibition opens at the British Library. ‘Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights’ shows how the work of contemporary feminist activists in the UK has its roots in the long and complex history of women’s rights. Lead curator, Dr Polly Russell joins Katya Adler to discuss the multi-faceted exhibit where you can see everything from personal diaries, banners and protest fashion to subversive literature, film, music and art, women’s voices, stories and experiences.

Presented by Katya Adler Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Beverley Purcell