She's the only other woman to have represented a Leeds constituency in the Commons.
It's a portrait of an authentically working-class Labour MP, with deep roots in the Labour party and the trade union movement.
And besides discussing her early life in a depression-era mining community, her role in Labour's bitter post-war faction fighting, and in Harold Wilson's 1960s governments, our conversation ranged across the decline in the number of working class Labour MPs and the party's need to reconnect with its historic electoral heartland.
You can watch the BOOKtalk episode on iPlayer here.
In the latest edition of BBC Parliament's BOOKtalk, Labour MP Rachel Reeves discusses Alice in Westminster, her new biography of Alice Bacon.