Bookshelfie: Women’s Prize Podcast S8 Ep25: Bookshelfie: Self Esteem
Dec 30, 2025
58:23
Rebecca Lucy Taylor, AKA Self Esteem talks to Vick about pushing back against the male gaze, the healing power of her art and how to carry on as a female music artist in your 40s.
Rebecca is one of the UK’s most exciting breakout musical stars of the past decade. Performing as Self Esteem, she rose from cult favourite to mainstream hero following the huge success of her empowering, truth-telling 2021 single, I Do This All The Time. Her trademark lyricism and razor-sharp wit led to a Mercury Prize nomination for her second solo album, Prioritise Pleasure, and was crowned the Guardian and Sunday Times Culture’s Album of the Year. Her latest album, A Complicated Woman, received the Visionary Award at the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards, praised for its ‘fearless, genre-defying songwriting that is reshaping the sound and substance of modern pop’.
Her first book, also titled A Complicated Woman, is a Sunday Times bestseller, taking readers on a poignant, witty journey using notes, lyrics, and observational prose that gets to the heart of being a woman in the world today.
Rebecca’s book choices are:
**The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
**Women Who Run with The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estès
**All Fours by Miranda July
**Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
**Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season eight of the Women’s Prize’s Bookshelfie Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the biggest celebration of women's creativity in the world and has been running for over 30 years.
Rebecca is one of the UK’s most exciting breakout musical stars of the past decade. Performing as Self Esteem, she rose from cult favourite to mainstream hero following the huge success of her empowering, truth-telling 2021 single, I Do This All The Time. Her trademark lyricism and razor-sharp wit led to a Mercury Prize nomination for her second solo album, Prioritise Pleasure, and was crowned the Guardian and Sunday Times Culture’s Album of the Year. Her latest album, A Complicated Woman, received the Visionary Award at the 2025 Ivor Novello Awards, praised for its ‘fearless, genre-defying songwriting that is reshaping the sound and substance of modern pop’.
Her first book, also titled A Complicated Woman, is a Sunday Times bestseller, taking readers on a poignant, witty journey using notes, lyrics, and observational prose that gets to the heart of being a woman in the world today.
Rebecca’s book choices are:
**The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
**Women Who Run with The Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estès
**All Fours by Miranda July
**Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa
**Milk Fed by Melissa Broder
Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season eight of the Women’s Prize’s Bookshelfie Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize for Fiction is the biggest celebration of women's creativity in the world and has been running for over 30 years.
Listen back to all previous seasons of the podcast for even more book recommendations, and subscribe now to be the first to hear when we return for season nine.
You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org - every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.
You can buy all books mentioned from our dedicated shelf on Bookshop.org - every purchase supports the work of the Women's Prize Trust and independent bookshops.
This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.