The Devolution of Woman

The extraordinary, subversive literary debut from Mercury Prize-nominated musician and artist Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka SELF ESTEEM)

＂A pin-up and an oracle for millennial women.＂
Dolly Alderton

In the beginning I was nothing. And then He made me:

A sexualized form
A disappointing muse
A biological clock
A power-hungry Jezabel
An object of abuse
A comfort blanket
Forbidden Fruit

Breasts and nice teeth.

In her extraordinary debut, with trademark lyricism and razor-sharp wit, Mercury Prize-nominated musician and artist Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka SELF ESTEEM) takes us on a journey through womanhood - whatever the hell that means.

Through vignettes, lyrics and biting observational prose, A COMPLICATED WOMAN takes us from Genesis through the Fall through tentative attempts to cast ourselves as the Messiah in our own lives. It offers itself up as a subversive anti-Bible for any woman who has ever cracked under the weight of impossible expectation; who has done unto others the damage that has been wrought onto her; and who has discovered deep within herself a resilience that surprised her.

A COMPLICATED WOMAN is a cathartic scream of a book that gets to the heart of what it is to be a woman in the world today, and cements Taylor as one of the most exciting voices of her generation.

As Self Esteem, Rebecca Taylor has given voice to the feelings of insecurity and misogyny-induced frustration whilst emboldening a whole new audience with powerful, truth-telling lyricism. Her latest album ’Prioritise Pleasure’ was voted the Guardian’s top album of 2021. She has written the music for ’Prima Facie’, Jodie Comer’s theatre debut and music for Dolly Alderton’s TV Adaptation for the BBC of EVERYTHING I KNOW ABOUT LOVE.