Bookshelfie: Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell

Former swimmer and entrepreneur Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell discusses her career, details her love of the water, and lays bare the pressures within her former swimming world.

Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell is a former elite athlete with a career spanning over 10 years, swimming for both Great Britain and Kenya. She is a former world number one and British champion, winning the 50m and 100m breaststroke in 2010. She was the first Black woman to swim for the Great Britain team.

In 2023, she was honoured in Forbes 30 Under 30 for her work in Social Impact. Rebecca is also the CEO of the 10,000 Interns Foundation, a non-profit that champions underrepresented talent by creating paid internship opportunities. Prior to this, she founded and ran NKG, a creative strategy and media agency focused on social change projects.

Her first book These Heavy Black Bones is out in June.

Rebecca’s book choices are:
** Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
** Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
** Educated by Tara Westover
** In The Wake by Christina Sharpe
** Animal by Lisa Taddeo

Vick Hope, multi-award winning TV and BBC Radio 1 presenter, author and journalist, is the host of season seven of the Women’s Prize for Fiction Podcast. Every week, Vick will be joined by another inspirational woman to discuss the work of incredible female authors. The Women’s Prize is one of the most prestigious literary awards in the world, and they continue to champion the very best books written by women.
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This podcast is sponsored by Baileys and produced by Bird Lime Media.