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 first came to prominence as The Divine Miss M. And, in a career spanning over four decades, she’s received multiple awards including a Grammy for Wind Beneath My Wings – a song featured in Beaches, a film in which she starred  and produced. Bette talks to Jane about her latest release It’s the Girls – a tribute to girl groups.

Bette’s 2015 UK tour starts on the 9th July in Birmingham and then travels to Manchester, Glasgow, Leeds and finishes in London on the 19th July.

Before the 2010 general election just under a fifth of MPs were women, after the votes had been counted it went up to just over a fifth. As the political parties finish selecting the candidates who will stand for them in every seat across the country we look at how many women have been selected so far, how many could still be selected and how many more women we might realistically expect to see elected to parliament in May next year. Andrea talks to Rosie Campbell, Reader in Politics at Birkbeck, University of London and to Sarah Childs, Professor of Politics and Gender at the University of Bristol.

How would you react if your 4 year old son told you he should be a girl? This week’s drama of the week tells the story of 11 year old Amy and her parents as they make the decision about  whether to give her the hormone blocking treatment that will stop puberty kicking in. And next month Lisa Williamson’s first novel – the Art of Being Normal, will focus on a transgender teenager.

Susie Green, who had to take her daughter Jackie to America to get hormone treatment, and Lisa Williamson join Andrea Catherwood.Ìý

For more information on this subject please click .Ìý

Maddy Prior has been part of the British folk music scene since 1969. She joins Emma to discuss her career and Ìý·É¾±³Ù³óÌý, and her upcoming tour with the reformed 

Anna Krien, winner William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2014 – Night Games: Sex, Power and a Journey into the Dark Heart of Sport – a book about professional footballers and a culture of adulation and entitlement that can impact some players’ treatment of women off the field of play.

June Mottershead, whose Ìý´Ú´Ç³Ü²Ô»å±ð»åÌý, joins Emma to talk about her extraordinary, from a chimpanzee called Mary, to an orphaned lion cub called Christy whom she hand reared from birth.

Our Zoo by June Mottershead is published by Headline

We often hear about that special relationship between grandparents and grandchildren – grandparents, often with more time on their hands, relishing doing things with their grandchildren.Ìý  But it is estimated that there are about a million children in the UK who no longer have any contact with their grandparents. Helen Harris has written a novel, Sylvia Garland’s Broken Heart,  with a grandmother and grandson at the heart of the novel.Ìý Jane Jackson set up the  soon after she lost contact with her first grandchild. The group now supports grandparents all over the UK and beyond.

 Helen Harris  Sylvia Garland’s Broken Heart  (Halban Publishers)