Rachel Johnson's Difficult Women

This week's difficult woman is classicist, scholar, and broadcaster Mary Beard. Described by the new yorker as a "Celebrity Historian" her distinct charm has set her apart in a world dominated by men often characterised by their dry mundanity. She talks the struggles she faced getting into the world of classics as well as her takes on the last few months of political chaos.

This week's difficult woman is the veteran journalist, author, broadcaster and campaigner Marjorie Wallace. Marjorie began her career in television, working on The Frost Programme as a trainee producer. She later moved into investigative journalism where she covered the Thalidomide scandal for the Sunday Times. She is the founder of the mental health charity SANE and the author of ‘The Silent Twin...

This week's difficult woman is the writer and activist Catherine Mayer. Catherine started her career as a journalist before going onto write a bestselling political biography of King Charles. In 2015 she co-founded the Women's Equality Party with the broadcaster Sandi Toksvig. She talks feminism, gender self-identification, Harry and Meghan and grieving for her late husband Andy Gill during the pa...

This week's difficult woman is the journalist and writer Sarah Standing. Sarah's career in writing began at 14 when she won a Vogue Young Writers competition. She has since written for Tatler magazine, the Telegraph and the Spectator where she became Travel and Lifestyle editor. For much of her life, Sarah has been surrounded by the glitz and glamour of the film industry. Her parents were the famo...

This week's difficult woman is the campaigner and writer Karen Ingala Smith. Karen has become a leading feminist voice, tackling male violence against women through research and her work at the East London charity nia, where she is Chief Executive. She is also Director of Woman’s Place UK, an organisation that has attracted controversy for its defence of women's only spaces. She talks male violenc...

This week's difficult woman is the journalist and broadcaster Dame Jenni Murray. Dame Jenni has enjoyed success in both TV and Radio, presenting Newsnight, the Today programme and Woman’s Hour. She talks about what it means to be a working woman, her relationship with her mother, her decision to leave the BBC and the issue of impartiality.

This week's difficult woman is someone who has scarcely been in the public eye but who has always brought a storm of controversies when she does make the headlines. Her first taste of difficulties was when she published her bombshell account of Dianna's love affair with James Hewitt. Hounded and criticised by the mainstream press unwilling to believe the remarkable story, her vindication would com...

This weeks difficult woman is notorious television critic and Sunday Times Columnist Camilla Long. A woman who by her own admission has embraced being difficult in the name of success. She talks everything from Michael Fassbender's manhood to her own struggles being visible in the cutthroat world of journalism.

This weeks difficult woman is Kate Bingham. The Chair of the UK's vaccine taskforce, charged with delivering this countries world beating covid vaccine response. From her rough and tumble beginnings in Wales, to a startling career in biotech, we hear about her expansive life!

This week's difficult woman is Baroness Sayeeda Warsi. Lawyer, Politician, Baroness, and former Co-Chair of the conservative party Baroness Warsi has never had a problem speaking up against her party when she feels it is not in line with her values. She talks new PM's, conservative islamophobia, and even some behind the scenes secrets about Alistair Campbell!

This week Rachel talks to Hilary McGrady, the Director General of the National Trust, founded to care for our countryside and Britain's many historic properties. McGrady is top dog at Europe's largest conservation charity -and therefore in charge of this nation’s nature, beauty, and history.

This week Rachel is joined by journalist and novelist Celia Walden. A woman who seems to have it all, Rachel dives into her imposter syndrome, her relationship with her husband Piers Morgan, and what its like being torn between two countries.

This week Rachel speaks to the longest serving Editor of British vogue, Alexandra Shulman

Rachel Johnson speaks to Journalist, broadcaster & LBC Presenter Sangita Myska about the moment a listener questioned her Britishness, and how she responded.

Rachel Johnson speaks to Patience Wheatcroft, a British journalist and life peeress, who was editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal Europe.

Baroness Beeban Kidron is the filmmaker turned internet safety activist, whose time in the silver screen boasts directorial credits on Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit. Her latest mission, described as "one middle-aged woman's campaign against Silicon Valley", has influenced tech policy on both sides of the Atlantic - and last week, California introduced its own...

There really ain't nothing like DAME MAUREEN LIPMAN CBE 1999 Dame Commander of the order of the British Empire in the 2020 birthday honours for services to charity, entertainment and the arts, Mo is a zionist, royalist, actress, writer, comedian who is never out of the headlines.

Minette Batters is president of the National Farmers Union and has repped the interests of 55,000 farmers in England and Wales through arguably the industry’s biggest upheaval in living memory. Her intray is Upheaval – and unprecedented and monumental challenges. On top of Brexit. A humanitarian food crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The worst drought for 500 years. The twin peak c...

It is almost impossible to think of a more important role in modern life than the one held by RACHEL DE SOUZA. Made a dame in 2014 for services to education last year she took up the post of Children’s commissioners. Only this morning - we are recording this on Monday 8 August Dame Rachel was denouncing the Metropolitan police’s record on child protection after new data revealed that 650 children...

One of the most overused words in modern life - curate - when we curate our scatter cushions and sandwiches this must be galling for this week’s Difficult Woman who is unquestionably this nations foremost curator First British and first female director of Tate Modern, Frances Morris is - no way of avoiding it - a curator par excellence and art world royalty. Her opening night of Tate modern - the...

Shelagh Fogarty’s name and voice will need no introduction to many listeners and subscribers - she left the BBC and became the host of the lunch to teatime Slot on LBC back in 2014 and her warm tones and confiding and empathetic yet always authoritative manner have won her record audiences. As devotees will know, she comes from a large Liverpudlian family of Irish extraction and her many siblings...

Barbara Amiel, Lady Black, started life as a journalist, producer, writer, whatever and whose midlife marriage to a Canadian press baron Conrad Black was a great glass elevator into the social and financial stratosphere - the power couple’s Icarus-like fall when Lord black was jailed was equally precipitate as she documents in her magnificent score settling eye popper of a memoir, Friends and Enem...

This week’s Difficult Woman Lynn Barber is a journalism legend and grand dame. Winner of the Interview of the Year press Oscars a record six times, pen name the Demon Barber and when she asked to interview me this year I only agreed on condition that she would do this podcast. She is a widow who says some her jolliest conversations are now about not sex but dying but enjoyed a teenagerhood so fasc...

Hey Difficult Women listeners, here’s a brand new podcast we think you’d like, called The Followers. Shelagh Fogarty began her LBC career as a guest presenter in 2014, and her balanced and calm presenting style soon earned her a permanent role. Heartbreakingly, it was this calm approach which led to the most harrowing ordeal of Shelagh's life, when a man stalked her for nearly 2 years. In 2017, Sh...

It’s hard to sum up Julia Hobsbawm. When I asked my husband he said “human dynamo” and “tireless promoter” She was the first ever professor of Public Relations who started her career as the publicist for Maya Angelou. She describes her career as “atypical.” She’s fund raised for the Labour party, she’s introduced Sarah to Gordon Brown and ran a company with her, Hobsbawm Macaulay, she’s experience...