Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women

Conservative MP and Queen of the Hard Brexit, Andrea Jenkyns is our guest on this week's podcast. Growing up destitute, her father taught Andrea the importance of being 'difficult' from a young age. This determination led Andrea to Andrew Lloyd Webber's living room, the final of Miss UK, and the top of Iain Dales "Most Influential Conservatives" list!

The outspoken and dare I say infamous wife of Johnny Mercer MP joins me on the podcast this week. Felicity Mercer works alongside her husband, helping to manage the day to day running of his office. When she's not in the office she can be found on twitter decrying Liz Truss as an 'Imbecile' or slating the honours system. Strap in for this one, Felicity doesn't hold back. 

Kate Mosse is a literary titan having sold over 10 million books, translated into 38 languages. She also founded the women's prize for fiction and her new book "Warrior Queens and Quiet Revolutionaries" champions the forgotten women of history who have shaped the world we live in today. A fascinating chat, delving into not only her life but the lives of countless women history has chosen to forget...

At 7 years old, Suzanne moved onto a seventy-foot yacht with her parents. It was a turbulent childhood with deadly waves, fifty thousand miles of ocean, and endless cups of tea! Homeschooled her whole life, Suzanne escaped the boat after ten years and worked her way to Oxford University. And then there was the time the government tried to frame her late husband! Essential listening filled with har...

When the Taliban returned to power, Soomaya Javadi’s future as a dentistry student and a woman in Afghanistan was in peril. Her Hazara ethnicity further jeopardized her fate, belonging to one of the most targeted ethnic groups in the country and one historically persecuted by the Taliban during their initial rule in 1996. Facing looming oppression, Javadi made the difficult decision to depart...

This week's difficult women is Gogglebox's own Mary Killen! 

Every few seconds, a child's genitals are cut in Africa. Leyla Hussein was one of them... A psychotherapist who now specialises in supporting survivors of sexual abuse, Leyla has dedicated her life to raising awareness of FGM and supporting her fellow survivors. She is a self-proclaimed difficult woman with an incredibly powerful story to tell. 

Rabbi The Baroness Neuberger DBE was the second woman to be ordained as a Rabbi in the UK, and is a British member of the House of Lords. She has been busy and active across public life for decades in the fields of public health, refugees, education, she is the personification of the expression the great and the good.

Katie Hickman has lived an enviable life to say the least. A prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction, Katie was the daughter of diplomats, she spent her youth travelling the world, before ran away to join the circus in her 20's. Later she turned her hand to writing, her new book 'bravehearted' tells the untold stories of the women in the wild west. 

Being expelled from school for drugs hasn't stopped Emily Sheffield from having a prolific and impressive career in journalism, she was columnist at the guardian, the deputy editor of vogue, and of course she took over as editor of the evening standard in June 2020. 

CONTENT WARNING: This episode contains discussions of anorexia and self-harm. Author and Journalist Hadley Freeman is no stranger to being difficult, having left the Guardian after 22 years in the midst of a gender critical row. She has, in the past, spoken openly about her drug addiction and has now written a courageous and unflinching memoir of anorexia, candidly talking about the honest tr...

Mary Watkins, Baroness Watkins, is a veritable legend in the world of nursing and there is no more qualified voice to address the current state of our NHS and the difficulties that come with being a nurse, than she. 

Maggie Oliver is a former Detective Constable with the Greater Manchester police who made waves as the whistle-blower in the Rochdale grooming scandal. Exposing the flaws within her own team that lead to the mishandling of the case. 

Television presenter, crafter, and national treasure Kirsty Allsopp is this week's difficult woman. Kirsty has never seen a row that she hasn't wanted to wade into, from Vaping to Homework she isn't afraid to have her opinion heard. 

Two days after she informed her employer that she was pregnant with her first child, Joeli Brearley was sacked from her job by voicemail. Off the back of this she founded Pregnant then Screwed, a charity dedicated to ending the motherhood penalty.

On Halloween in 2010, Joanna Simpson was beaten to death by her estranged husband, Robert Brown. Prior to her death, the mum-of-two had filed for divorce after enduring years of abuse. In a first for the podcast, we are joined by not one but two difficult women; Her mother, Diana Parkes, and her best friend, Hetti Barkworth-Nanton. Together they have campaigned tirelessly for stricter prosecution...

This week's difficult woman is the Sunday Times' Chief Foreign Correspondent, Cristina Lamb, freshly back from investigating the stolen children of Ukraine. Having reported from Brazil, Washington, Afghanistan, and Pakistan to name but four. All of this goes without mentioning her Ghost-writing of "I am Malala".

Dr Emma Runswick is the BMA's Deputy Chair of Council. In the thick of it during this winter of discontent, not least as her union announced 3 days of strike action in a weeks' time. An activist and campaigner from a young age, Emma has never chosen the path of least resistance.

This weeks difficult woman is political journalist and ghostwriter Isabel Oakeshott. Though you may be more familiar with her recent involvement in the Lockdown Files. Isabel made the difficult decision to leak 100'000 private whatsapp messages between Matt Hancock and various members of government, a decision which has come with much controversy.

Abi Austen shot into the public eye after announcing her desire to transition from male to female whilst being an officer in the army. After being forced to resign her position in the army, she had to endure a lengthy and public legal battle to fight for her rights.

Rosie Duffield is the Labour MP for Canterbury since 2017 - the first Labour MP to hold that seat, the only Labour seat in Kent - and won on the slimmest of margins. Instead of being a poster girl for the party - she ticks so many boxes on backstory - she is treated like the black sheep.

Jennifer Robinson, the Australian human rights and media freedom barrister who graces Doughty Street chambers, is probably best known for her work representing Julian Assange “I did not expect it was going to become so big,” says Robinson. “And I certainly never expected I’d spend so much time visiting him in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.” Her new book, co-written with Keina Yoshida, could not...

Even though Anne Glenconner has been royal adjacent all her life she is far more than a pawn on the chessboard moving nimbly between the Queen, Princess Margaret, the new King, and scions of the ancient British aristocracy. She endured an abusive marriage, the loss of two children, and plenty of tears to go along with the titles.

Amber Rudd had one of the most meteoric rises to power in recent political history. With just over a year between her first Cabinet appointment to her first day as home secretary, she became a well-established actor within Theresa May's government. Her parliamentary career was, however, halted in its tracks after a series of revelations amid the Windrush Deportation Scandal. She talks to Rachel ab...

This week’s difficult woman is Jess Phillips, self-described gobby daughter of brummie socialists and Labour MP for Birmingham Yardley. Jess is the voice of domestic and sexual violence in parliament and every year, reads out the names of women who have been killed by men. Less than a month after being elected and unhappy with the lack of female representation in Corbyn’s shadow cabinet she famous...