Virginia Trioli and Tracey Spicer — Photo: Helen Withycombe

In the 1990s, Tracey Spicer was a smart, talented young journalist rising quickly through the ranks at Channel Ten. But even as the network’s national news anchor, she had to play the role of the ‘good girl’, submitting with a smile to onerous daily hair and make-up routines and humouring advice from network bosses such as ‘stick your tits out’.

She was famously sacked (or ‘boned’, in now notorious industry parlance) by email in 2006, after returning from maternity leave. After that, it was No More Mrs Nice Spice. She sued, won a sizeable settlement, and embarked on the path to become the Tracey Spicer we know today … defiant, outspoken and given to hilarious public confessions.

Candy Bowers performs — Photo: Helen Withycombe

Her funny and candid new book, The Good Girl Stripped Bare, starts with her early life in suburban Brisbane, traces the highs and lows her career in journalism and touches on many other subjects – from anxiety to class warfare to the beauty myth. In conversation with her friend and contemporary Virginia Trioli, and with a special performance from Candy Bowers, Spicer talks about work, life and feminism today.