Free Thinking - International Women's Day: Hollie McNish, Emily Hall, Helen Pearson, Edwina Attlee and Ailsa Grant Ferguson

Performance poet Hollie McNish has written a book and a series of poems about motherhood. Composer Emily Hall has been commissioned to write a childrens' opera for Hull 2017. Scientist Helen Pearson has researched and written about the longest runnning study of human development. Edwina Attlee is a writer with an interest in launderettes, sleeper trains, fire escapes, greasy spoons, postcards, and the working lives of women. She'll be sharing audio tales from the National Life Stories Archive at the British Library, where women talk about working lives spent on oil rigs, in steel plants, and a host of other places. Ailsa Grant Ferguson has studied Dorothy Leigh's 'Mother's Blessing', which was the bestselling book by a woman of the 17th century.

They join Anne McElvoy for a programme for International Women's Day which looks at the ways in which everyday experiences in the lives of women feed into creativity.

Helen Pearson is the author of The Life Project: The extraordinary story of 70,000 Ordinary Lives. Hollie McNish is the author of Nobody Told Me: The Poetry of Parenthood. You can find more on her website Holliepoetry.com

Emily Hall's compositions include the operas Folie a Deux, Sante and a children's opera for Hull 2017. Song Cycles including Love Songs and Life Cycle and a whole range of compositions for chamber ensembles, string quartets, orchestras and soloists. http://www.emilyhall.co.uk/

Producer: Jane Thurlow