Woman's Hour - Weekend Woman's Hour

With Sheila McClennon. The best-selling American crime writer Patricia Cornwell talks about her latest book, the 17th to feature Dr Kay Scarpetta, the workaholic forensic scientist. She was first introduced in 1990, and Patricia explains why Kay has been such an enjoyable character to write about for the last 20 years. Listener Sue Green emailed Woman's Hour recently to say that she is something of a running joke among her friends because she continues to use cotton handkerchiefs in favour of the paper variety. But Sue is not alone: the programme hears from another die-hard handkerchief fan, Annalisa Barbieri - who goes so far as to iron her beloved collection - who talks about the history of this small square of cloth. Within the next few months, one million young people under the age of 24 are going to be out of work. With no employment and no direction, the lives of these youngsters can quickly spiral into poverty, family disintegration and homelessness. This is what happened to Elvige. Struggling with a dysfunctional family and the threat of a life on the streets, she dropped out of college but is now a confident young adult studying for a degree and doing work with troubled youngsters. The government wants to scrap the defence of provocation in murder cases where a spouse or partner has been unfaithful. Woman's Hour asks what the bill's defeat in the House of Lords means for women. Kamilya Jurban is a Palestinian singer, instrumentalist and composer, and one of the most prominent contemporary artists in the Middle East. Karine Polwart is a Scottish folk singer songwriter whose debut album won the Radio 2 Folk Album of the Year Award in 2005. They were brought together to perform for the British Council and they give us a taste of their unique collaboration. What do clothes mean to women? Why do some of us find it so hard to give or throw things away that we no longer wear? Justine Picardie, author of My Mother's Wedding Dress: The Life and Afterlife of Clothes', Jay Hunt, style writer and broadcaster, and Oriole Cullen, the curator of fashion and textiles at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London share their emotional experience of clothes with Jenni Murray.