Actor Vicky Knight, Conscription, Author Lesley Pearse

Woman's Hour

The Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves is today delivering a speech in which she’ll promise to ‘reform the Treasury’. If Labour were to win the next General Election, she would be the first female Chancellor the UK has seen. But what would her economic plans mean for women? And how do they compare to the current government’s? Economic Adviser Vicky Pryce and Journalist Lucy Fisher join Emma Barnett to discuss.

Bestselling novelist Lesley Pearse has written 31 books and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. But she didn’t start writing until her mid-30s, and it would be another 13 years before her first novel was published. Now Lesley has written an autobiography of her extraordinary life – from a difficult childhood to making shepherd’s pie for David Bowie. She joins Emma to tell her story.

Denmark is set to become the latest country to extend military conscription to women. This comes as Russia has warned the war there could spin out of control and expand geographically. What’s it like for women living in the Nordic countries, three of whom have now introduced female conscription? Emma speaks to The Guardian’s Nordic Correspondent Miranda Bryant and Nora Tangseth from the Organisation of Representatives of the Norwegian Conscripts who is in the Norwegian Army.

The new film Silver Haze is based on recollections of real events in actor Vicky Knight’s childhood, including when she survived an arson attacked aged just eight. Vicky talks to Emma about blending her real childhood experiences with the narrative of the film, and why she wanted to tell her story.

Presenter: Emma Barnett Producer: Lottie Garton