Woman's Hour - Polly Toynbee on her new book An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals

Polly Toynbee on her new book An Uneasy Inheritance: My Family and Other Radicals

06/07/23 • 57 min

As a self confessed “silver spooner” who enjoyed a privileged upbringing Polly Toynbee talks to Nuala McGovern about her committed left wing "rabble rouser" ancestors and her own life long battle with the injustices of the British class system.

In our series about narcissistic mothers we've heard a lot from daughters. Yesterday, a listener we are calling Bethany told her story. Her relationship with her daughter had been strained for a long time. In January she received a book in the post about how to spot and deal with a narcissistic mother, some passages were highlighted , and a letter. Today she picks up the story and explained how she felt as she opened the book and read the passages pointed out by her daughter. How does it feel to be labelled a narcissist and how can you move forward from there?

Last month we looked at the experience of caring with authors Emily Kenway and Lynne Tillman. So many of you got in touch including academic Dinah Roe, a Reader in nineteeth-century literature, who with poet Sarah Hesketh, managing editor of Modern Poetry In Translation, have been running a series of free online workshops, inspired by Christina Rossetti's writing, designed specifically for people with caring responsibilities. Dinah and Sarah join Nuala in the studio.

Presenter: Nuala McGovern Producer: Lisa Jenkinson Studio Manager: Duncan Hannant

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Candi Staton, Narcissistic mother 'Bethany', Author Emma Cline, Smart phones in school, Nurses

Four-time Grammy award nominated singer Candi Staton has moved between several musical genres during of the course of her celebrated career – from soul, R&B, gospel and disco. However, dance music has always been her main groove with iconic tracks such as the multi-platinum 'You Got the Love' and her classic anthem 'Young Hearts Run Free'. It has recently been remixed by UK producer Benji La Vida and has had more than 2.4 million streams on Spotify alone, and there are 60,000 TikTok reels of people doing a dance challenge to the song. Candi is in the UK to play the Kite Festival of Ideas and Music in Oxfordshire this Saturday. She joins Nuala to discuss her life and music.

Ghana's health system is struggling due to their nurses being recruited by high-income countries, according to the head of the International Council of Nurses. So what is it that makes Ghanaian Nurses want to come and work in the UK? Angela is a nurse from Ghana who also works with the Ghanaian Diaspora Nursing Alliance – she joins Nuala to discuss.

Eight primary schools in a town in Ireland have come together and decided together to ban smartphones, Nuala speaks to Principle Rachel Harper, the leader of the initiative and Parent and PTA member Laura Bourne, to find out why and how it's been received.

In our series about narcissistic mothers we have heard from the daughters so far. Today, a listener we are calling Bethany tells her side of the story. Her relationship with her daughter had been strained for a long time. In January she received a book in the post about how to spot and deal with a narcissistic mother, some passages were highlighted, and a letter. Since then she has not seen her daughter or her grandchildren. How does it feel to be labelled a narcissist and how can you move forward from there?

In 2016, at the age of 27, Emma Cline became very famous indeed when her first novel The Girls was published. Set in the summer of 69 in California 14 year old Evie is caught up in a Manson Family-like cult and the violence that follows. In her new novel ‘The Guest’ Alex is a young woman whose life could go either way. She exploits the men around her as they exploit her but what does she want and where will she end up?

Presented by Nuala McGovern Producer: Louise Corley Editor: Karen Dalziel

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Louise Redknapp, Insomnia, Lindsey Burrow, Ukraine dam

The rescue efforts are continuing in Ukraine after Tuesday's breach of the Kakhovka dam. 30 communities along the Dnipro river have been flooded according to officials. Now the Red Cross has raised concerns that land-mines have been dislodged in the flooding. Kate Zhuzha is from Nova Kakhovka where the dam has collapsed and is the Founder of NGO Union of Help to Kherson in touch with people in the flooded areas. She talks to Krupa about the latest reports.

Lindsey Burrow has been caring for her husband, the former rugby league star Rob Burrow, since he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 2019. Last month, she took part in her first marathon, The Rob Burrow Leeds Marathon, and raised over £100,000 towards a new specialist Motor Neurone Disease Centre to be built in her husband’s name. She talks to Krupa about fitting in her training with family and work life and exploring the wider impact of MND in a documentary she filmed for ITV, Lindsey and Rob: Living with MND.

Louise Redknapp is celebrating 30 years in music. She had 18 top 20 hits with the R&B band Eternal and during her solo career she sold more than 15 million records overall. Louise has just released a Greatest Hits album with 30 tracks, and a new single High Hopes. Having reached the final of Strictly Come Dancing and performed in Cabaret and the musical 9 to 5, she has now returned to the West End stage in Grease as The Teen Angel, the first time the role has been played by a woman in the UK. She joins Krupa Padhy to discuss her career.

Bregje Hofstede, a writer, could not sleep for a decade. Driven to desperation, she started with the obvious interventions, then tried every trick and remedy she came across until at last she managed to re-frame her problem and found a solution that worked for her. She joins Krupa to discuss her book, In Search of Sleep, where she documents her experiences and tries to understand the science, psychology and culture of sleeplessness.

Presenter: Krupa Padhy Producer: Rebecca Myatt Studio manager: Michael Millham