Cake from Mary Berry and golden memores of a song from Joan Baez

Journalist, broadcaster and one of the most familiar voices to several generations of BBC Radio 4 listeners, Dame Jenni Murray, finally left Woman’s Hour last week.
Her departure on Thursday, after 33 years with the programme, came amid a flurry of tributes and extraordinary memories of guests and interviewees.
Some like Harriet Harman and Helena Kennedy  turned up in person others appeared in clips from the archives inspiring  anecdotes and recollections. Mary Berry baked her a special cake and her colleagues put a blue commemorative plaque on her longtime favourite green studio chair.
Over the years she had interviewed Margaret Thatcher, Hillary Clinton and even Hollywood legend Bette Davis but for Murray one occasion stood out beyond all others.
The “peak of her career” she insists was when her favourite American folk singer Joan Baez came into the Woman’s Hour studio. Murray, all though far too professional to go full-on fan-girl, couldn’t believe her luck when she told Baez that her favourite song was Diamonds and Rust and the singer responded by performing it right in front of her. “I was sobbing inside because she was so wonderful”, she said.
Of course Jenni Murray has often talked about the powerful famous and charismatic women she has interviewed, not least in the many talks she has given for Clive Conway Productions. Now, at the age of 70, she has decided to move on to a new chapter in her life.But there must be many more fascinating tales to tell and we hope to see her back on the CCP circuit in the not too distant future.