Woman's Hour

Monday 25th February is 25 years to the day that serial killer Fred West confessed to the murder of his daughter Heather, and the first set of remains were excavated from 25 Cromwell Street, Gloucester, crimes for which he and his wife Rose were found guilty. Lucy Partington was one of their victims, an English student in her final year at Exeter University who vanished while waiting for a late-night bus. For twenty years her family didn’t know what had happened to her. Her sister Marian, author of If You Sit Very Still speaks to Jane about her journey from “murderous rage” towards her sister’s killers, to a vow she made to bring something positive out of Lucy’s death. Menopause and the workplace: What are employers doing to help women with menopausal symptoms? We hear from Deborah Garlick founder of the over 40’s website Henpicked. Emma Morgan’s debut novel, 'A Love Story for Bewildered Girls', follows three young women in Leeds and their adventures in love. One knows she likes women, one men, and one just isn’t sure. Is it rare to see so much sexual diversity in romantic fiction? She joins us to discuss. Boxer, Simran Kaur, National youth champion, has just won a fifth consecutive National ABA crown. What is it like to already have such success at just 17? 'Mary’s Babies' is a fictional play based on the true story of Mary Barton, a fertility treatment pioneer who set up a ground-breaking fertility clinic in London alongside her husband in the 1930s. The real clinic’s practices were controversial at the time and kept secret, with all records of donors destroyed in the early 1960s. It is now thought that Mary’s husband, Bertold Weisner, fathered around 1,000 babies himself. Jane speaks to playwright, Maud Dromgoole and fertility historian, Dr Yuliya Hilevych Presenter: Jane Garvey Producer: Kirsty Starkey Interviewed Guest: Marian Partington Interviewed Guest: Deborah Garlick Interviewed Guest: Emma Morgan Interviewed Guest: Simran Kaur Interviewed Guest: Maud Dromgoole Interviewed Guest: Dr Yuliya Hilevych