Dame Jenni Murray

Broadcaster and writer

Jenni Murray has one of the best loved voices on BBC radio, where she has been the regular presenter of Woman's Hour since 1987. In 1998 she was nominated Radio Broadcaster of the Year, and in 2007 she became a member of the Radio Academy Hall of Fame and she was recently given a lifetime achievement award by the Media Society.

Jenni Murray was awarded an OBE in 1999 for services to broadcasting, and made a Dame Commander of the British Empire in the Queen's Birthday Honours list in 2011.

Jenni Murray was born and educated in Barnsley, and has a degree in French and Drama from Hull University. She joined BBC Radio Bristol in 1973 and went on to report and present for BBC TV's South Today. In 1983 she joined Newsnight, and then two years later moved to Radio 4 as a presenter for theToday programme.

She also writes regularly for various newspapers and magazines, and is the author of several books including: The Woman's Hour: A History of Women Since World War II;  Is It Me or Is It Hot In Here: A Modern Woman's Guide to the Menopause; That's My Boy; and Memoirs of a Not So Dutiful Daughter.  If you buy her books at Amazon through this link a small commission will go to Humanists UK.

She is a feminist and critic of the institution of marriage, a supporter of the right to die when one chooses (and the right not to think positively about cancer), patron of several charities including the Family Planning Association and the Breast Cancer Campaign, and vice-president of Parkinson's UK.

See also
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/16/womens-hour-jenni-murray
http://newhumanist.org.uk/1004/suicide-sisters