Woman's Hour - 07/05/2009

With Jenni Murray. After dropping out of Cheltenham Ladies College, Rosie Boycott experimented with drugs, sex and alcohol. She co-founded the feminist magazine Spare Rib and the publishing house Virago,but by the age of 30 she had descended into alcoholism and chaos. Rosie looks back to those days and talks about her continuing battle with alcohol. When Helen Oyeyemi told her parents that her first novel was going to be published, they thought she was joking. After all, she had only just got her A-levels. Now 25, she has published her third novel, White is for Witching: a 'spooky story about a xenophobic house and a starving girl'. Helen joins Jenni to talk about her work and her influences, from Edgar Allen Poe to magical realism. The US Supreme Court Justice David Souter has announced his retirement. Making the appointment to pick his replacement is down to President Obama - and he is under pressure to pick a woman. The programme hears about the women in the running and why the politics of abortion will play a key role.