Jenni Murray RIP

Is the presenter new? I didn't recognise the name (but am not a regular listener).

There's now a celebration of her life on Woman's Hour.

So, will they be allowed to give an honest account or will inconvenient aspects be suppressed?

Yes, it's like Mr Rochester or Heathcliff : hardly the dreamboats they're often made out to be. I still love GWTW, but as you say, that awful scene tarnishes the whole book..
I know some people argue that maybe Scarlett consented when they got upstairs, especially as it says she starts kissing him back on the landing, but even if she did, Rhett clearly took her up precisely because he knew, at least at that point,,that she didn't want to.

It really got to me. Because I'm a sucker for a bit of a deep South romance.

But yes, Scarlett was carried forcibly and unconsentingly upstairs by Rhett, and 'taken', in the parlance of the day, and wakes up wildly in love.

It's the message. That if a man ignores a woman's protestations and lack of consent, she'll cave, willingly, and lovingly.

I went from thinking GWTW was a great romantic story, to hang on a minute...

On here actually. When someone pointed it out.

The first report I read of her passing sad she had died on the 12th of March but family had just released the information a week later.

I have wondered on how they were able to keep it private for so long.

Margaret Mitchell was female though. I get what you mean. In Mitchell's case she based Rhett on the abusive husband Red who raped her, and the weird scene in the book may have been an unhealthy coping mechanism.

I’m not sure if this has already been posted, but the Guardian obituary covers JM’’s position on ‘trans issues’ well I think. Outlines them without judgement, although this line says a lot. “A day later, the BBC warned Murray that “presenters should remain impartial on controversial topics covered by their BBC programmes”, effectively silencing any discussion of the issue on Woman’s Hour.” (My emphasis)

www.theguardian.com/media/2026/mar/22/dame-jenni-murray-obituary

Agree @maltravers A very disappointing ‘tribute’ from Jane Garvey. It does say ‘as told to’ rather than written by, so who knows if it’s been sanitised.

Hero.
RIP

RIP

Sally Feldman is a former WH editor. She was interviewed by Nick Robinson on the Today programme las Friday about her friend Jenni Murray. Unfortunately Harriet Harman was also a guest.

Moore is quite spot on - it's offensive to insist that Murry's career significance be separated from her views on the trans debate when Murry explicitly ended it over the issue. Even going so far as to give public testimony in the House of Lords..

For Harman to do so now after all that's come out about the BBC's internal regime of political correctness is shockingly disrespectful, and really an apology should be demanded. If the BBC is incapable of not maligning a former staff member in its on-air obituary notice it should politely recuse itself.

And just to add, what is it with men where they absolutely bloody love the idea that a good seeing to will sort women's issues out entirely?

I'll never forget the moment I realised that Scarlett O'Hara had been written as falling in love with her rapist. Just after he raped her.

Wow, cake, thank you for that. An incredible piece of writing. What a friend - both of them actually.

I've just been wondering why Jenni's death particularly has me so fired up.

And I think it's because I was watching in real time how one of our major institutions demonstrated their utter distain for women. And she refused to shut up.

That article says she was told off for pointing out the sexism that Melvin Bragg's literary heroine suddenly recovered her equilibrium after some energetic sex.

And suggesting that marriage was a trap got her another bollocking, even though, as she said, “I was only quoting Mary Wollstonecraft".

So you can't suggest anything unpalatable about men, even when it's second fucking hand? On a feminist show?

How she managed to maintain her years of activism and speaking out about sexism and misogyny, without suggesting that men are entirely at the bottom of it, is a massive testament to her brilliance.

And I love that her friend, Sally, smuggled in vodka when she was in hospital. And 'hello darling, welcome to the club', when Sally was also diagnosed with breast cancer, had me in tears.

The woman should've been bloody running the BBC. Not been sidelined by it.

But as Sally points out, she's been proven right, in the end.

I'm delighted that she lived long enough to see the Supreme Court ruling.

As vindication goes, it's a biggie.

This is a lovely article about her from a friend, Sally Feldman

https://archive.ph/7scsv

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/media/article/jenni-murray-womans-hour-death-ttmjt6mqn

It even goes...there 👀!

So sad to hear this. RIP Jenni

I think she at least lurked and read some of the threads - and I hope she saw the ones where we were all outraged on her behalf.

Thanks for that Joyous. I'd never read it before. I wonder if Jenni ever posted here.

Thank you Jenni and RIP.

One of the reasons I knew I wasn’t going mad back then was because you said things straightforwardly.

She was a defender of FWR too, see this from 2022: https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/society/38415/in-defence-of-mumsnet#:~:text=They're%20just%20worried%20about%20their,former%20presenter%20of%20Woman's%20Hour

Larping man got her sacked, and is still proud of it. Wanker.

Suggesting it was pure ageism. Right.

Jane Garvey seems to be suggesting in this article that Jenni was pushed out because she didn’t want to build a social media presence. Nothing to do with her GC position on trans issues then..?

I mean, it was almost comical. I've absolutely zero doubt that Jenni knew exactly what she was doing in the way she framed her questions.

Of course, no-one could've predicted such stupid answers, said with spectacularly misplaced and rather batey confidence, I seem to remember.

But she set a trap that she knew would be walked into. The same with the vicar guy. She must've known he knew fuck nothing about women's history of oppression.

Suzanne has it right. She was a mixture of warm friendliness and incisive grit.

A big loss.

Remembered by Jane Garvey in the Times

https://www.thetimes.com/article/af81f4be-8788-4990-aea6-aaa10bc0a44b?shareToken=5022b4e51fb6858c9b3af9884ddf59a0&ver=article