POD: Book Clubs

Gutsy Women

Courage and resilience

Throughout history and around the globe women have overcome the toughest resistance imaginable to win victories that have made progress possible for all of us. That is the achievement of each of the women in this book. They are all gutsy women, leaders with the courage to stand up to the status quo, ask hard questions, and get the job done.

Be inspired by ordinary women who have gone on the achieve the extraordinary. Hillary and Chelsea Clinton have collated ‘The Book of Gutsy Women’ , a phenomenal collection of essays about women who have made a lasting difference in the world. Listen to their interview about the book with Fearne Cotton on the Happy Place podcast and then delve a bit deeper into the stories of nine of these amazing women.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

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Quick Introduction from the Authors

(1 min)

“The gutsy women in this book share a fierce optimism that their work and lives will make a difference in the world. And, they’re right,” said Chelsea Clinton. “We hope readers will draw strength from their stories as we have, because if history shows one thing, it’s that the world needs more gutsy women.”

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Gutsy Women. Happy Place Podcast

(39 mins)

Fearne Cotton interviews Hillary Rodham Clinton & Chelsea Clinton. They share stories of their favourite female pioneers from across the world, all taken from their new book, Gutsy Women.

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PODCASTS

Malala Yousafzai – Advocate for Women’s Education

(34 mins )

Oprah interviews Malala. Find out more about this amazing woman, the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. Oprah’s Super Soul Conversations.

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Jane Goodall – Primatologist, Ethologist & Anthropologist

(24 mins)

An interview from 2004. Virginia Morrell interviewed Jane Goodall about her life from 1957 when she arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, to November 1960 when she made her first ground breaking discovery, one that changed the way we see chimpanzees as well as the way we define ourselves as humans.

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Maya Angelou – Civil Rights Activist, Poet and Author

(26 mins )

Writer and poet Maya Angelou reflects on her life and career, in conversation with Mark Lawson. She is frank about her extraordinary life, family and the issue of race in modern America. Radio 4 Front Row Archive.

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VIDEOS

Edie Windsor- American LGBT rights activist

(4 mins)

The woman who brought down the Defense Against Marriage Act, discusses life after DOMA, the phone call she received from Obama, and her life with her late wife Thea Spyer. ( If you have more time look in the Xtra section for her New Yorker Festival talk with Arial Levy, 1 hr 27 mins ).

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Helen Keller – Ground breaking advocate for the blind & deaf communities

(17 mins)

Biographics explores how Helen Keller overcome her disabilities and beat incredible odds to become an inspiration to the world.

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Serena Williams – American tennis player and Entrepreneur

(18 mins)

In 2017, 23 Grand Slam titles winner, tennis superstar Serena Williams sat down with journalist Gayle King to share a warm, mischievous conversation about her life, love, wins and losses. (In 2019 she successfully returned to the top 10 and was Wimbledon and US Open runner-up).

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ARTICLES

Greta Thunberg – Teenage Environmental Activist

Great Thunberg, schoolgirl climate change warrior: ‘Some people can let things go. I can’t’ By Jonathan Watts for The Guardian.

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Hawa Abdi – Somali human rights activist and medical doctor

Hawa Abdi, one of Somalia’s first female obstetricians who saved thousands during the civil war. By Nduta Waweru for Face 2 Face Africa. Her Ted talk (Mother and daughter doctor-heroes: Hawa Abdi + Deqo Mohamedis) is embedded in the article.

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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – Novelist and feminist campaigner

She’s on school reading lists and counts Hillary, Oprah and Beyoncé as fans. The author talks about motherhood, #MeToo and causing controversy. By Lisa Allardice for The Guardian.

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XTRA

9 Books to Give to Important Women in Your Life

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Hamnet

Tender and moving

Maggie O’Farrell’s Hamnet is a fictionalised account of the short life of Shakespeare’s 11 year old son. Winner of the 2020 Women’s Prize for Fiction, the chair of judges Martha Lane Fox said O’Farrell’s novel was a “truly great” work of fiction and an “exceptional winner”.

England, 1580: The Black Death creeps across the land, an ever-present threat, infecting the healthy, the sick, the old and the young, alike. A luminous portrait of a marriage, a shattering evocation of a family ravaged by grief and loss, and a tender and unforgettable re-imagining of a boy whose life has been all but forgotten, and whose name was given to one of the most celebrated plays of all time, Hamnet is mesmerizing, seductive, impossible to put down.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series View

Recursion

Mind-bending thriller

Recursion is a New York Times Bestseller by Blake Crouch, author of Dark Matter and the Wayward Pines triology. Described as mind-bending, action-packed and deeply emotional, Recursion is science fiction thriller set in New York, exploring love, grief and the nature of memories.

When Barry Sutton fails to stop the suicide of a women suffering with False Memory Syndrome, a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived, his search for the truth is more terrifying than any disease. Neuroscientist Helena Smith, whose mother has Alzheimer’s disease, has dedicated her life to creating a technology that will preserve our most precious memories forever. As their stories collide, Barry and Helena are trapped together in a loop of ever-growing chaos.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Midnight Express

Gripping prison epic

Midnight Express is the true story of Billy Hayes, an American college student who was caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey in 1970 and thrown into prison. First released as a book in 1977, it quickly became a worldwide best-seller. The story was made into a movie in 1978, directed by Alan Parker, produced by David Puttnam and written by Oliver Stone. It went on to win two Oscars in 1979 for Best Screenplay and Best Original Score.

In more recent times, Billy has travelled round the world with a one man show Riding the Midnight Express, which premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013. He has written two sequels to his original book both published in 2013: Midnight Return (Escaping Midnight Express) and The Midnight Express Letters – from a Turkish Prison, 1970 – 1975, a collection of letters written to his friends and family from prison. In the same year, the story was made in to a ballet, which was the subject of much speculation when the lead dancer, Sergei Polunin, left the show one week before opening. In 2016, the story was the subject of a documentary, Midnight Return: The Story of Billy Hayes and Turkey.

Part of our ‘Beyond the Book’ Series. View

Gutsy Women

Courage and resilience

START HERE

(1 min)

(39 mins)

PODCASTS

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(34 mins )

(24 mins)

(26 mins )

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VIDEOS

(4 mins)

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ARTICLES

XTRA

9 Books to Give to Important Women in Your Life

She Speaks By Yvette Cooper

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