Have you ever wondered how those high-achieving women do it? You may be surprised to discover that behind some of Britain’s most successful women is a love-worn self-help book. A genre once stigmatised as a comfort blanket for impressionable Americans and the weak-minded now sits proudly at the bedside of some of our favourite fearless females, and sales are going through the roof.

What do you mean, you’re still languishing among your own anxieties when the tools are out there to steer your way through the fog of life’s challenges? Want to change your life? Kick-start your career? Overcome your fear? Then try browsing the self-help shelves. Because life helps those who help themselves. All together now: “Life helps those . . .”

NATASHA KHAN
Singer, Bat for Lashes

WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES
Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Rider £12.99)

My mad art teacher knew I was into intuition and thought I’d enjoy this book. It’s a series of folk tales, from Mexico to the Eskimos, separated into different phases of a woman’s life. Her message is that it’s all about the relationship between ego and spirit, so she encourages you to keep your mind in both the conscious and subconscious worlds. We are trained not to consult our subconscious, but that’s where the key to completeness lies. It’s quite psychoanalytical and grounded in Jungian thought. It doesn’t take the feminist line – it’s simply written from a powerful woman’s point of view. It’s like having an old grandmother at your beck and call: it’s been a nourishing source of womanly spirit. The book is not just healy-feely, it’s cheeky, too. It says things such as love your breasts even when they swing over your shoulders. And it’s not just about you, but community, and loving all shapes and sizes. I’d be a different person without it.

SHAMI CHAKRABARTI
Director of Liberty

THE TIPPING POINT
Malcolm Gladwell (Abacus £7.99)

I read this in 2003, when I had just become director of Liberty. I was terrified and felt unqualified to do the job. I was thinking, hang on a minute, I’ve only got a budget of £1m a year, a team of 25, and I have to take on the government, the police and all the people who think everyone should be locked up indefinitely. The book’s concept is ultimately optimistic: you can make a big difference with relatively small resources. In fact, the subtitle, How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, could almost be me now. I had been a lawyer at Liberty, but now I was a director and campaigner. When I started reading it, I realised it was not just an interesting book, but could be really helpful to a campaigner. Usually, I’m not a great one for self-help manuals – you know, “Here’s how to be a perfect mum”. But this book gave me confidence to do this job.

CAMILLA BATMANGHELIDJH
Director of Kids Company

BEING AND NOTHINGNESS
Jean-Paul Sartre (Routledge £12.99)

Sartre argues that your actions create your identity, but that at the same time you are nothing. Some people might find that very depressing, but it’s actually liberating: when you understand that none of us is that significant, you become brave. He also says don’t be possessive. Often people try and create their identities through wealth, but if you understood that you are nothing, you wouldn’t be so greedy for possessions that apparently define you. It’s the most powerful argument for equality. There is no difference between me, the children I work with and the person with the expensive house: we are all insignificant. It gives me the strength to speak up about things without worrying about losing my status. That’s why I’ve got a big gob – blame it on Sartre.

HILARY MANTEL
Novelist

THE ENNEAGRAM
Don Richard Riso (Try secondhand shops, or Enneagram Transformations, by Don Richard Riso, Houghton Miffl in £6)

When I picked up this book, I had the creepy feeling that someone had written about my family and closest friends. The enneagram is a tool for personality typing; it divides humanity into nine types. It’s similar in some respects to Jungian typology, but much more flexible and easy to understand. You will know for certain when you find yourself.

As a novelist preoccupied with human interaction, I was fascinated by it, as it helps you to understand the gap between motivation and behaviour. I now place not only people I know but characters I have made up on its wheel of personality. It has also made my relationships easier. The enneagram makes you more understanding. It helps you get on with people you find alien.

For me, it was a revelation. It got me off my own back. I stopped hoping that one day I’d turn into a party animal, and grew more content with my weird, asocial self.

ROSIE STANCER
Arctic explorer

ILLUSIONS: THE ADVENTURES OF A RELUCTANT MESSIAH
Richard Bach (Arrow £7.99)

I was 14 when I read this book. Mercifully short and light-hearted, it’s based on two brainstorming pilots involved in an entertaining series of modern miracles. When the younger sees the elder walking on water, he says, “It’s a miracle!” The old soul teaches him that it’s not, it’s just his perception. It’s more that the elder had a dream and worked for it. I guess, in the same way, I’ve walked on the ice caps, but once people become familiar with what I put into it, it’s much more understandable.

There is a great quote in it: “You are never given a wish without the power to make it come true, but you may have to work for it.”

That’s basic sport psychology. If you’re prepared to invest time, hard work and emotional sacrifice, you can realise your dream – it worked for me.

After reading this book, I fast-fowarded my way out of that gauche teenage phase; I wasn’t quite so preoccupied with others’ perception of me, and became more distracted by the exciting possibilities that life could offer. It’s been in my mind ever since.

NATALIE MASSENET
Director of Net-a-porter

CREATIVE VISUALISATION
Shakti Gawain (New World Library £10.99)

My dad gave this book to me – he was a big spiritual person. It’s all about visualisation. I and a couple of friends were really wanting to change our lives. One friend of mine had started doing “the magic” and it literally changed her life in 30 days, so the rest of us started doing it as well.

The idea is that anything can happen as long as you visualise it – the only limits you have in life are the limits that you put on yourself. There’s enough happiness and success to go round – you just need to visualise it and you can have it, too. It was the foundation for changing my life and other people’s lives. I imagined a successful, buzzing business that was fast-growing, and I imagined myself being very happy. I knew it was some sort of media business. I don’t think the business would be here without that book. It changed my life, in that it got me thinking in a very different way and opened my eyes to the fact that I could do anything I wanted – that I should just start doing it and not be afraid of failure or taking a risk.

AMY JENKINS
Novelist and screenwriter

HEALING THE SHAME THAT BINDS YOU
John Bradshaw (Health Communications £10.99)

I first read this book 10 years ago. I got into the therapy thing in my twenties. I liked glamorous, difficult, emotionally unavailable men and women, and my relationships weren’t working out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do, and my life was in a state. Bradshaw’s work was ground-breaking – he brought the idea of shame into public consciousness. He talks about the difference between healthy and toxic shame. If you feel shame after stealing something, that’s healthy because it helps you to decide that it is wrong. Toxic shame is a feeling that we’re defective – we’re even ashamed of our shame, so we cover it up. Bradshaw also works on family: he explains how children put themselves at fault to protect their perception of their parents’ perfection; that habit is carried through into adulthood. I felt lost, then, suddenly, I had a map. I could have healthy relationships with my family and, eventually, intimate relationships.

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