"As a scientist I am often the only female working in the lab so I always like coming home to Newnham. I find that working with men and living with women balances out my life overall." Hetal Kirin Patel

University of Cambridge

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Alumnae news

Celebrate your news and achievements with your fellow alumnae

Do you have any news or projects which you would like to share with your fellow Newnhamites? Whether you have written a book, are directing a play or holding an event which other alumnae can become involved in, do let us know by emailing roll@newn.cam.ac.uk with details.

International Women's Day

To celebrate International Women's Day our Nenwham Associates gave us an insight in to how they spent the day.

Read more.

MacColl Lecture by Dame Margaret Anstee (NC 1944) 22nd April 2013

Honorary Fellow Dame Margaret Anstee will deliver the Macoll Lecture at the forthcoming interdisciplinary conference 'Remembering JB Trend: the quiet internationalist' at Clare College on Monday 22 April 2013 at 5pm.

Dame Margaret's keynote lecture is entitled 'John Brande Trend: The Life of a Scholar Gypsy.' All are welcome to attend the lecture, which is free of charge. For further details please visit the symposium's page on the CRASSH website:

http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2073/programme/

Sara Mohr-Peitsch (NC 1998) - Top of the Baroque for Comic Relief

Sara Mohr-Pietsch set herself the challenge of learning 8 notes on the cello in 7 days! You can hear the result in The Comic Canon, a mega mash-up of Pachelbel's Canon, which she's made with the support of some outstandingly musical friends.

Watch it on YouTube

Rupa Huq (NC 1990) Book launch event - 4 February

You are invited to the launch of my new book On the Edge - The Contested Cultures of English Suburbia. It's taking place within the context of the Labour Party policy review.

The launch event is for my new 'political' suburbia-themed book with John Cruddas as part of the Labour Party Policy Review. It's a seminar called 'Re-imagining England' and takes place on Monday 4th February from 4.30-6pm in Committee Room 6, House of Commons. The other invited speakers are the author and campaigner Paul Kingsnorth and Mary Creagh MP, the Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment. Email to book your place.

The book is on how suburbia ain't what it used to be post-downturn/ after recent migratory waves as evidenced in the census and how Labour/ all politicians/ academics need to take it seriously but it's usually unstead just derided as naff/ safe/ boring/ respectable. See the attached press release. The book is about to roll off the presses!

Hester Abrams (NC 1982) - Jewish Book Week

Hester Abrams has been working on a major London literary festival, Jewish Book Week. It runs from 23 February to 3 March 2013. Tickets are now on sale.
You can browse the programme at http://www.jewishbookweek.com and http://www.kingsplace.co.uk/jbw.

You can now book to hear Simon Schama, Thomas Heatherwick, David Miliband, Edmund de Waal, The Chief Rabbi, John McCarthy, Rachel Johnson, Deborah Levy, Nicholas Lander, Elkie Brooks, Fania Oz-Salzberger, Carlo Ginzburg and Lisa Jardine, James Kugel, A B Yehoshua, Edith Pearlman, Orlando Figes, Nick Robinson, Jonathan Wittenberg, Naomi Alderman and Giles Fraser... and many, many more unique voices, writers and thinkers in over 70 events.

Helen Tse (NC 1996) - Sweet Mandarin Sauces

Helen Tse - formerly a lawyer with Clifford Chance has secured a deal of a lifetime that see's her Sweet Mandarin range of sauces stocked in 500 Sainsbury's in the Free From Aisle. The three sauces include barbecue, sweet chilli and sweet & sour and are gluten free, have no MSG and are accredited by the Vegan Society. Helen said her legal skills helped her enormously as the documents to apply to Sainsbury's were like a closing checklist for a securitization transaction. Her sauces are also stocked in Selfridges, Booths and Wing Yip. To find your nearest Sainsbury's to try these sauces click here .

Hester Abrams (NC 1982) - Season Two of The Hour

Hester Abrams was researcher for season two of hit BBC series The Hour. The new series starts 9pm, Wednesday November 14th on BBC2.

Clare Balding (NC 1990) went to Styal Prison at the invitation of Clare McGregor (NC1991): see Clare M’s fascinating blog at:

http://coachingwithstyal.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/the-day-clare-balding-came-to-styal/

Celia Haddon publishes new book

Celia Haddon's new book, Tilly, The ugliest cat in the shelter: How I rescued her and she rescued me, published by Octopus (£7.99), is the story of how the author rescued an unwanted cat, and how the cat helped her through breast cancer. See Celia's website and blog for more information about her work.

Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ on BBC Radio 4

Dr Gemma Simmonds CJ (NC 1977) featured on BBC Radio 4's Prayer for the Day at 5.43am throughout the last week in May, as well as delivering the Daily Service live on Thursday May 31^st (feast of the Visitation).

Memorial service for Jean Guy MD FRCR DHMSA to be held on 25th April 2012, at St Andrew by the Wardrobe, London, 1.15pm

A memorial service for Dr Jean Guy (NC 1960) will be held on Wednesday 25th April and will be an opportunity for her many friends and colleagues to commemorate her life and many achievements. Directions and details of the church can be found here.

Jean's funeral was held in Lavenham on February 29th and she was buried nearby in the churchyard of Preston St Mary, places she loved very deeply. An obituary can be found on the Lavenham Church website.

If you have any queries about the memorial service please contact Jean's son, Richard Guy.

Professor Jane Humphries awarded the Ranki Prize

Jane Humphries (NC 1967, Economics) has been awarded the prestigious Ranki Prize for her book Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution. The Prize is awarded biennially by the North American Economic History Association for an oustanding book in European economic history. Her work is a unique account of working-class childhood during the era of industrialisation and draws upon more than 600 autobiographies written by working men of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. For further details about the book please visit the Cambridge University Press website.

Valerie Thornhill's novel, In Restoration, nominated for book prize

Valerie Thornhill (NC 1954, Modern Languages) was one of nine shortlisted authors nominated for the fiction category of the Summer Collection of the People's Book Prize. Sponsored by the Publishers' Association, it was founded by established authors, including Beryl Bainbridge and Frederick Forsyth, to promote works by new writers ignored by the large publishing companies. For more information, see the People's Book Prize website.

Muriel Wheldale's legacy lives on at old school

In response to our ‘newsflash’ informing Roll Members that Newnham was to feature in the BBC programme: ‘Botany a Blooming History’ Catherine Davies (NC 1977) sent this interesting news:

“I shall look forward with special interest to this programme, and have forwarded the information to my friends in King Edward VI High School for Girls in Edgbaston, where you might be interested to learn that botanical developments are still happening. We are working together on a small project to create a medieval herb garden in the school, carved out of a space in the quadrangle overlooked by the headmistress's office. Our project is mostly about medicinal herbs, but we have also given it a wider remit to include other useful plants, notably dye, textile and household plants. The plan comprises four raised beds of nine herbs each, with additional containers of plants which will be portable for use in living history events or the classroom. The beds are surrounded by gravel paths and the enclosure is fenced on three sides by hurdle hedges made of rowan and hazel rods. The garden can be viewed from the hard landscaping or walked around for closer study. The doctrine of the humours can be illustrated with herbs from each bed, so the design comprises a mnemonic form to a certain extent, though this cannot be consistent for all the herbs as so many are 'hot and dry'. The project is the work of the Living History Group of KEHS and KES; I designed it and sourced the plants, and helped to build it.”

Baroness Coussins on the Education Bill

To read Baroness Coussins's contribution to the House of Lords debate about the Education Bill on Tues 14 June, please click here.

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