Everywoman: One Woman’s Truth About Speaking the Truth

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Other chapters are darker, detailing Jess' time working for women's aid, stories of abuse and domestic violence. Phillips has witnessed first-hand the violent extremities of our misogynistic society and starkly tells the stories of women who don’t have the power or audience to do it for themselves.

This is a plain speaking guide on how she got into politics and how she handles all the shit now she is there. Let us not get this twisted or get bogged down by party politics, Jess Phillips is a fucking rock star.

While at times I disagreed with Jess on her views, at times felt the writing was a bit too forced into down to earth writing style, I can say that every person should read this book. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. I've admired Jess for a while, just because it's not every day a woman from the midlands is on the TV, never mind as an MP. I think I wanted to read a book about feminism and women's issues though, and instead this was more of an autobiography.

In ‘Everywoman’, Jess shares her political experiences and recollections of a life lived in the public eye. I can't say I'm a fan of Phillips either, and after reading this I respect her more, but am no more fond of her, finding her hypocritical and self-important, even if the abuse she gets is undeserved. She’s open about her own experiences, good and bad, and her own personality – she knows she can speak her mind too much and yes, she does seek publicity, but so that she can highlight the women’s and equality causes she really cares about. I am immediately recommending this to everyone I know and I'm sure my social media followers are already sick of my posting screenshot of my favourite passages. For her, politicians need to talk to the people in a simple language that they can understand and relate to.

Partly her life story, partly her opinions on key issues such as abuse against women, the book was compelling throughout. A lot of respect for Jess reading this, she is so clearly someone who genuinely cares about others and wants to see the world become a better, fairer and more equal place. I do not want any particular woman to set herself up as Everywoman, because firstly it's impossible for one individual to represent the huge diversity that exists within this gender, and secondly every time someone tries it is without fail a white, middle class (which she is, whatever people may say about her accent) professional, able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual woman.

She doesn't mention anyone who is transgender within the binary - Julie Burchill's influence, perhaps?This book is a mix of laugh out loud hilarious, make you cry unbelievable and shares some completely absurd statistics, like people in the UK donating more to donkey charities than to women's charities (no offence to donkeys, cute beans). At times, it is something of a depressing read, not least because you feel she's beating her head against a brick wall. there were so many funny and wise things on each page that whittling them down into a review seemed impossible.