Woman's Hour - 02/07/2009

With Jenni Murray. One hundred years ago the first female suffragette went on hunger strike in prison. Marion Wallace Dunlop had been arrested for militancy; when she refused to eat, the prison authorities became afraid that she might die and become a martyr, so they released her. How effective is a hunger strike as a political tool? How much is it seen as a woman's method of campaigning? Jenni Murray is joined by Joanna Bourke, Professor of History at Birkbeck College, University of London, and Maura Harrington, an Irish environmental campaigner who went on hunger strike last year. Zoe Heller has created several unlikeable characters, including Barbara from Notes On A Scandal and Audrey from her most recent novel, The Believers. Does Zoe herself dislike her characters? What is it like to try and write sympathetically about fairly monstrous people? Zoe Heller and fellow writer Esther Freud describe the pleasures and otherwise of creating and reading about unlikeable characters. The economic cost of days lost at work as a result of headaches is seven billion per year. Headache UK, an alliance working for people with headaches, has launched a manifesto in order to raise awareness of the condition. Jenni hears about the latest treatments. Plus, discussing what to wear to stay cool in a heatwave.