Main content

Women and their dogs; Nikki Gemmell

Barking Blondes Jo Good and Anna Webb on loving dogs, legal aid concerns, designing plus-size fashion, Nikki Gemmell on her new novel, and Dorothy Levitt, 'fastest girl on earth'.

How a passion for their dogs brought the Barking Blondes together. Jo Good and Anna Webb on how love of their pets defines their friendships and relationships. Concerns that government proposed changes will lead to a two-tier system. Designing plus-size fashion - could the fashion industry do more? Nikki Gemmell on her new novel, I Take You, which is a re-telling of Lady Chatterley's Lover. Dorothy Levitt "fastest girl on earth" - one of early female motorists to be included in the latest edition of the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.

Available now

58 minutes

Clip

Chapters

  • Legal Aid Consultation

    Jenni talks to Maura McGowan, chairman of the Bar Council about the consulatation.

    Duration: 07:12

  • Nikki Gemmell

    The author discusses the changes in erotic literature over the last decade.

    Duration: 10:02

  • Plus Size Fashion

    We speak to Amber Graafland and Rianne Ward about how plus size fashion should be promoted

    Duration: 08:08

  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

    Dr Lawrence Goldman celebrates the life of Edwardian motor racing star Dorothy Levitt.

    Duration: 07:40

  • Barking Blondes

    Jo Good and Anna Webb share a passion for dogs, they discuss their role in relationships.

    Duration: 08:41

What impact will reforms have on legal aid?

The Government鈥檚 consultation on further reform of legal aid finishes next week. It wants to introduce Price Competitive Tendering contracts which could be in place by autumn of 2014. But a number of groups have voiced concerns that such reforms could create a two tier system of justice for defendants, have an adverse impact on victims and witnesses and decrease diversity at the Criminal Bar. So will the proposed changes safeguard public money or could they increase inequality in the justice system? Jenni talks to Maura McGowan, chairman of the .

Nikki Gemmell

, author of the international bestseller The Bride Stripped Bare and With My Body, has now added a third book to her oeuvre of erotic literature. I Take You is a contemporary retelling of DH Lawrence鈥檚 Lady Chatterley鈥檚 Lover. It tells the story of Connie, a Notting Hill banker's wife tied to a dominant husband who has been paralysed from the waist down, and her affair with the gardener of a local communal garden.听Nikki Gemmell discusses听her book and how the world of erotic literature has changed since she published her first erotic novel ten years ago.

Nikki Gemmell: I Take You is published 3rd June

Plus-size Fashion

Glossy magazines regularly feature thin models showing off the latest designs, yet the average size of a woman in the UK is around 14 鈥 16. So should the fashion industry do more to promote what is known as 鈥榩lus size鈥 fashion? Amber Graafland is the fashion and beauty director at the Daily Mirror and Rianne Ward is the owner of Evolve Magazine and also helped to set up the first British Plus-Size Fashion Weekend,听 which took place in London earlier this year.

鈥淭he Fastest Girl On Earth鈥 and the Pioneering Early Female Motorists

In 1906 a young woman, Dorothy Levitt, came to be known as 鈥渢he fastest girl on earth鈥 after she broke the land speed record as one of the earliest female drivers. A firm believer that women should drive, she set out to prove they could as well as any man by driving between London and Liverpool without the aid of a mechanic - taking her dog Dodo, a loaded revolver, and dressed in the latest driving fashions. And as an advocate for female drivers she wrote her pioneering manual, The Woman And The Car: A Chatty Little Handbook For All Women Who Motor Or Want to Motor. Levitt inspired many more women to follow her example, and now she and several others from the 1920鈥檚 and 30鈥檚 鈥 such as motorcycle racer Gwenda Stewart, and speedway star Fay Taylour - have just been added to the To talk to us about these trailblazing early female motorists, and their extraordinary lives and significance, Jenni Murray is joined from Oxford by the Editor of the Dictionary, Dr Lawrence Goldman.

Barking Blondes

Jo Good and Anna Webb became friends through a shared passion for their dogs. They went on to co-present a radio show on 成人快手 London called Barking at the Moon and have been regulars on television programmes displaying their enthusiasm and canine knowledge. So what role do dogs play in cementing a friendship and can an obsession with a four-legged friend get in the way of other relationships? Jo and Anna discuss.

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Jenni Murray
Interviewed Guest Maura McGowan
Interviewed Guest Amber Graafland
Interviewed Guest Rianne Ward
Interviewed Guest Lawrence Goldman
Interviewed Guest Jo Good
Interviewed Guest Anna Webb
Producer Ruth Watts
Editor Anne Peacock

Broadcast

  • Thu 30 May 2013 10:00

Follow us on Instagram

Get all the pictures, videos, behind the scenes and more from Woman鈥檚 Hour

Podcast