Emma Barnett | Maternity Service
Sat 26 Apr 2025 | 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Join award-winning broadcaster and journalist Emma Barnett for an honest, real-time exploration of maternity leave in her new book Maternity Service. Far from a restful break, maternity leave—or “maternity service” as Barnett calls it—requires women to be constantly on, juggling overwhelming responsibility, emotional highs, and challenging lows. This book is both a love letter and a lifeline to women navigating this complex, often misunderstood experience.
Written during Barnett’s second maternity leave, Maternity Service captures the unfiltered truth of this period, without the rose-tinted glasses often applied. Barnett shares her personal journey, revealing how the collective forgetting of what maternity leave truly entails can leave women unprepared for the demands it places on their bodies, minds, and identities.
Through this powerful discussion, Barnett celebrates the often invisible work of caring for the next generation and the profound impact it has on women’s sense of self. Don’t miss the chance to hear her speak about the unsung workforce that sustains us all.
In conversation with Alice Wroe
Venue: TTP Stage (Cambridge Union)
Duration: 1 hour
Choose your tickets:
Author Biography
Emma Barnett is an award-winning broadcaster and journalist. Named Interviewer of the Year at the British Journalism awards and twice speech radio presenter by the Radio Academy, she is a presenter on BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today Programme and hosts TV interviews and documentaries across the BBC. Previously she was the chief presenter of Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4, and has presented Newsnight, ITV’s After the News and BBC1’s Sunday Live as well as BBC Radio 5 Live’s mid-morning weekday programme. Emma also presented a global interviews programme on Bloomberg TV – with high profile one-to-one interviews with international figures from across the world of politics, sport, culture, entertainment and technology. Emma pens a bi-weekly newspaper column for the I Paper and was previously a columnist for the Sunday Times and the Daily Telegraph – where she was also the Women’s Editor. After the birth of her first child, she wrote the book ‘Period. It’s About Bloody Time’. Emma grew up in Manchester and now lives in London with her family.
Chair Biography
Alice Wroe is a feminist creative, working with some of the world’s leading brands and institutions. Highlights include Magic Leap, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Penguin Books and U2, where she curated digital content for the Joshua Tree tour in 2017 and 2019, championing country specific women’s history for 21 countries, seen by over 3 million people.
Alice is an experienced interviewer and chair, speaking at the Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything, Grace Hopper Celebration for Women in Computing, Sundance New Frontiers, UNESCO, Wilderness Festival, Cambridge Literary Festival and more. Notable interviews include, Jenni Murray, Cathy Newman and Laura Bates.
