Summary: Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the life of the prominent 19th-century social reformer Annie Besant. Born in 1847, Annie Besant espoused a range of causes including secularism, women's rights, Socialism, Irish Home Rule, birth control and better conditions for workers. Later in life she moved to India and took a leading role in the Indian self-rule movement, being appointed the first female president of the Indian National Congress in 1917. Melvyn Bragg is joined by Lawrence Goldman, Fellow in Modern History at St Peter's College, University of Oxford; David Stack, Reader in History at the University of Reading and Yasmin Khan, Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway, University of London.
