But the rapidity with which the transgender lobby has risen to a position of political influence and the number and enormity of consequences for women have forced me, albeit kicking and screaming, into taking up this discussion. Heather also perhaps: she tells in her book’s prologue of having “stumbled” into researching and writing on it by accident.

Born Still is a very special kind of memoir. It is, as Janet informs us in the opening pages, a political memoir – in which “the personal” – specifically, Janet’s life -- has been rendered so political, by virtue of its disruptive place in institutional systems of power and governance, as to have implications for the law and social practice -- in particular, in relation to home birth and independent midwifery.

Joanna Murray-Smith, playwright, talks about Sue Ingleton's new book: Making Trouble (Tongued with Fire).