:00:07. > :00:13.Radhika Sanghani is 24 and a journalist. She works for the Daily
:00:14. > :00:29.Telegraph's women's section and has written her first book called
:00:30. > :00:51.virgin. And it is published by Mills and Boon. Radhika Sanghani, let's
:00:52. > :00:56.start with the Mills and Boon thing. I have a fixed idea of what a Mills
:00:57. > :01:05.and Boon 's book is. It's all about a heroine who finally gets Mr
:01:06. > :01:12.Wright. It's all very soft focus and not very realistic. This is a very
:01:13. > :01:18.different sort of book? Yes, it is! Mills and Boon is still do their
:01:19. > :01:22.historical romance, this night that appears on a horse, but they also
:01:23. > :01:29.change direction and do books that are a lot more contemporary, so for
:01:30. > :01:34.example, my book, virgin, is a realistic account of life as a
:01:35. > :01:40.20`something young girl. It's also different from the conventional book
:01:41. > :01:45.because I do want to give too much away but it's very explicit, first
:01:46. > :01:50.of all, but secondly, the course of romance doesn't follow that
:01:51. > :01:55.prescribed template. You seem to be subverting the genre, if anything.
:01:56. > :02:01.My heroine is not passive at all. She is trying to lose her virginity.
:02:02. > :02:09.She is trying to orchestrate her own love life. She is a feminist. It is
:02:10. > :02:14.different because she's not that typical heroine who just lets love
:02:15. > :02:21.come and find her. She is trying to lose her virginity. She is appalled
:02:22. > :02:25.to find she has reached the third year of university and not lost it.
:02:26. > :02:31.Why is it so important to her and perhaps to others of that
:02:32. > :02:37.generation? I just think that nowadays, there are so many
:02:38. > :02:42.pressures, expectations, for younger people to lose their virginity and
:02:43. > :02:45.be sexually active. At university, there is this culture with drinking
:02:46. > :02:55.games revolving around sexual experience. It seems like the norm
:02:56. > :03:03.at university. The problem is that you are not part of the group, you
:03:04. > :03:08.feel left out. Who is this became that? I'd you expecting it to be
:03:09. > :03:12.read by your peers and contemporaries or by somebody
:03:13. > :03:18.younger? I wrote it with my peers in mind, so young 20`something women.
:03:19. > :03:23.At the same time, it would appeal to people who are 16 onwards because
:03:24. > :03:27.they are going through this idea of sexual pressures now they are at an
:03:28. > :03:34.age where they can actually have sex. They are more vulnerable to
:03:35. > :03:39.these pressures. It occurred to me that this is quite a useful... One
:03:40. > :03:48.of the things you're heroine does is write a very explosive blog with a
:03:49. > :03:53.friend, full of useful advice about matters to do with sex, or far too
:03:54. > :03:57.explicit to talk about in this interview! Did you write
:03:58. > :04:05.intentionally, thinking, that has an educational function? I guess. My
:04:06. > :04:10.heroine makes lots of mistakes and often gives into precious and I
:04:11. > :04:16.thought it might be nice to have a more neutral part of the book that
:04:17. > :04:20.gives a bit more honest advice so that a young person reading it does
:04:21. > :04:26.get the other perspective. These days, we have the Internet,
:04:27. > :04:31.Wikipedia, pawn. Don't young people pick up all they need to know anyway
:04:32. > :04:36.or is there still a purpose in writing something which is quite
:04:37. > :04:42.explicitly educational? It's so scary that there is so much on the
:04:43. > :04:48.Internet because it can be so wrong. If you do just find pornography, you
:04:49. > :04:56.get that one`sided view of the situation. It isn't that realistic
:04:57. > :05:02.to a young person at all. The same with educational blogs and websites.
:05:03. > :05:07.It all feels far removed. I thought by writing it is fiction with a
:05:08. > :05:12.related bull, likeable heroine, then people can actually find a way into
:05:13. > :05:17.that and understand a bit more. You write for the Daily Telegraph
:05:18. > :05:21.women's section. I wonder how far the content of the book was driven
:05:22. > :05:25.by your experience as a journalist and the fact that your starting
:05:26. > :05:32.point as a journalist is to convey information. With my day job, I
:05:33. > :05:36.write about women's issues a lot so I know a lot about the sexual
:05:37. > :05:41.expectations young people have and the pressures on their
:05:42. > :05:47.preoccupations with things like body hair. I am very aware of this and
:05:48. > :05:51.the growing awareness of feminism amongst young people, so it is
:05:52. > :05:57.something I put into my book, purely because more than other people, I
:05:58. > :06:02.know how widespread is. You have a cover line on this book from the
:06:03. > :06:15.late Joan Rivers. How did you manage that? She was alive at the time. My
:06:16. > :06:21.American publicists sent over to her and she said she loved it! What do
:06:22. > :06:28.you do next? I'm writing a sequel. And what will happen in the sequel?
:06:29. > :06:35.You're heroine has lost her virginity by the end of this book.
:06:36. > :06:42.Now, it explores what it is like to be a modern`day young girl who is
:06:43. > :06:48.now sexually active, so it goes through her relationships, dating
:06:49. > :06:52.and it explores themes of... The new pressures that come with being
:06:53. > :06:59.sexually active. How many people have you slept with, how many
:07:00. > :07:05.relationships have you had? We may be entering into dangerous territory
:07:06. > :07:10.by how autobiographical is this? Not at all! Completely fiction. But I
:07:11. > :07:13.have seen a lot of incidents with my friends at uni. It does have some
:07:14. > :07:38.basis in reality, just not mine! If you were lucky to have the
:07:39. > :07:45.sunshine today, it became very worn `` warm. But this persistent low
:07:46. > :07:48.cloud held the temperatures down. There are one or two thunderstorms
:07:49. > :07:49.in southern England this evening and a few more will develop and spread
:07:50. > :07:50.their way