Woman's Hour - 01/10/2008

Presented by Jane Garvey. Novelist Ali Smith has just published her fourth collection of short stories, The First Person and Other Stories. Jane talks to her about the different challenges of writing in the two forms, her literary inventiveness and the appeal of the short story. Last weekend, Afghanistan's top policewoman, Malalai Kakar, was shot dead as her son prepared to take her to work. Horia Mosadiq is the Amnesty International expert on Afghanistan and joins Jane to talk about Malalai's life and the implications of her death for other high-profile Afghan women. Jane is joined by the author Tracy Chevalier and the Sunday Times art critic Waldemar Janusaczak to find out what they think life in the Vermeer household would have been like as he produced his masterpieces. With the perceived wider acceptance of homosexuality, what hurdles do lesbians face in coming out and how should the process be handled? Jane talks to the crime novelist Natasha Cooper about her experiences, and to Tim Franks, chief executive of PACE. In the late-18th century, midwifery became a job for men as well as women, but these male midwifes were still treated with suspicion. In the next of her series on the medical history of childbirth, Claudia Hammond speaks to the medical historian Ornella Moscucci and Dr Lesley Hall, archivist at the Wellcome Library in London. Including drama The Whole of the Moon (3/5).