In My Skin

I watched the glaze of headlights, the windscreens of oncoming cars: a series of trapezoids with the silhouette of a single male driver. One pulled up in front of me; I reached over and opened the door, slid in. The smell of an unfamiliar car. A middle-aged man looking at me. 'Hi,' I said. 'How are you'.

Kate Holden is accustomed to being summed up at a glance: arts graduate, history buff, middle-class daughter, dreamer, innocent. But she is a young woman who understands better than most the secrets that people keep hidden.

In My Skin follows her journey from her reputation as a 'good girl' in the safe and leafy suburbs of Melbourne to the all-consuming attractions of heroin and the sex industry.

This is a story of survival and resourcefulness; an unflinching look at the consequences of addiction. Holden's journey leads her from a sheltered life in her loving family home to a world of sex for money - a seedy netherworld of back lanes, backseats and brothels.

More than just a fearless and compelling narrative, In My Skin is a triumphant announcement of a major new literary talent.

“In My Skin is the work of a stunningly talented writer who both graces and surpasses her material, subverting popular assumptions about addiction and prostitution while making the extraordinary seem commonplace and the ordinary deeply alluring. The subject matter, fascinating though it is, is secondary. Such are her powers to tap into the universal while telling a cracking good tale, Kate Holden could make the story of a tongue-tied troglodyte thrilling.”

Guardian This surprising trajectory, along with its searing intellectual and emotional honesty and the quality of the writing, easily sets In My Skin apart from most other my-substance-abuse-hell memoirs. Independent Her narrative is unwaveringly honest: she does not gloss over the brutality of some of her clients, but towards others she feels generosity, sympathy, lust and even love. Her writing is fluent, lyrical and inventive. This is a complex, thought-provoking and brilliantly unsettling book. New Statesman Holden does what writers are supposed to do: challenges herself to examine the pressures that led her to live a life that, to put it kindly, would seem countercultural to most of us. She presents her own and, by extension, women's sexuality less as being victimised by prostitution than as predatory and mercenary, as a career chosen and developed. She frankly describes the euphoria of drugs, of turning five or six tricks a night, and the added pleasure of reckoning the money that she earned. The Times

Kate Holden was born in Melbourne in 1972. She completed an Honours degree in classics and literature at the University of Melbourne and a graduate diploma in professional writing and editing. In My Skin is her first book.

"Gives you a tantalising peek into a world we all hope never to experience."Glamour"Quite simply in a class of its own ... the work of a stunningly talented writer."Joanna Briscoe, Guardian"A compelling story of love and squalor that retains humanity and sympathy."Stephanie Merritt, Observer"Searing intellectual and emotional honesty sets In My Skin apart from most other my-substance-abuse-in-hell memoirs."Independent on SundayI made money I'd never imagined and I wore velvet dresses and shone in lamplight. I walked tall in crowds, knowingmyself to be desired. I told people I was a prostitute, and smiled as I said it, and dared them to turn their gaze . . .The smile that I give when I talk about it now is, I can feel, nostalgic, provocative. A brightness comes into my eyes.And, I'm told, a hard look too. In My Skin describes an extraordinary journey through an often hidden world of heroin and prostitution. Kate's story is one of survival and resourcefulness, and an unflinching look at the consequences of addiction.

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