I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this, because I think this is a tough subject. But the author has written this so well, and it is completely refreshing to read something so raw and honest. I think it should be read by more people who look down on others in situations like this, you do what you have to, to survive. I’m lucky that I have seen all sorts in my life, but many are very sheltered from this and have no understanding. This book is a MUST for those people. And I really hope that the author stuck her two fingers up to her parents, they are not deserving of her love.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

If you are one of those people who:

1. Think people on benefits are lazy scroungers
2. Think people on benefits just can't be ar**d to get up and find a job
3. Go to food banks because, well, who wouldn't when the food is free?
4. Think women who end up in refuge accommodation must have 'asked for it'

Well, the list could go on and on, but I think you know the type of person I mean (and may God forgive you if you are one of those people). Then read this book. If it doesn't change one iota of your cold, hard soul, then you deserve to experience just one teeny tiny percent of what Cash Carraway has gone through, all in the name of the indomitable love for her daughter. I was blown away.

'Skint Estate' is an awful story that should be read. Cash Carraway has lead a harsh life and this angry memoir bares all. It is well written with both humour and horror. However this is NOT the story of a working class woman in poverty. This is the painful story of a survivor of child abuse and domestic abuse. While some parts resonate with me - moving from flat to flat and finally accepting I was outpriced from my home and having to move an hour away for any chance at stability, most of Carraway's history is because of the abuse and abandonment she has suffered. A difficult book to read, but worth it.

This book is absolutely essential in the UK; now and in the future. It's visceral and takes a long, hard look at life when the system continually fails. All future politicians should have to read this book to truly understand what the life of those they ignore is like: the struggle, the poverty, the sheer drive to continue. Cash Carraway's book is an absolutely must-read and a completely accurate account of life under Tory rule during the 2010's.

Refreshingly honest, pulls no punches - this should be on everyone's reading list for years to come.

This book should be compulsive reading for all Daily Mail journalists and readers, who think that somehow people living on benefits in the UK all live in palaces with more income than "decent, honest working folk" etc etc ad nauseum. Carraway shine a bright unflinching light on modern-day poverty in the UK - zero working hour contracts, social housing, benefits eligibility, food banks - all of it a far cry from the images regularly portrayed in the media.
As a single mother, she is driven by her instinct to provide for her child - from dancing in a Soho strip club while heavily pregnant, to penning articles about life below the poverty line which get twisted to support the media's ongoing narrative about benefit scroungers.... It's a stark account of the harsh realities behind the sensational headlines. The reality of not having a fixed address and how that affects your ability to work, have a bank account, etc. The reality of not having a full-time job, and the reluctance of landlords to then let accommodation to you. The challenges of being a single parent and caring for your child.... Carraway's strength and resilience through it all is truly inspiring, which makes her moments of vulnerability all the more hard-hitting.
This is an important book that should be widely read. Highly recommended.

What a read! The first few pages left me feeling I wasn’t going to get into this book but then I did and wow!
It’s very down to earth, a very gritty, truthful insight into what living in real poverty in the UK is like.
There is a certain humour alongside the shocking and sad stories of her life.

A raw account of what life is like at the bottom of society, with no money, no future. Carraway is articulate and angry and with no family support. She tells it as it is. I wouldn't willingly read this again but I am glad I read it. I, like most of us, am very guilty of burying my head and hoping that things are ok. Clearly they are not.

This is such an important book that I recently read it again and will now be seeking out further titles from Carraway. Touching, profound and inspirational, the way Carraway has written is unique and addictive. Highly recommend.

I read this book not really sure if it was real or not yet knowing that even if it wasn’t it could well be.
The reality of living in poverty, of being pregnant and knowing that you’ll do whatever it takes to have the baby and give it the love that you always wanted but never got.

As I read the first couple of pages of this book I admit I was already planning to not finish, but this is because you don’t often find a book so real, in your face, gritty and exposed. It makes you uncomfortable but I kept reading and after a few more pages I couldn’t put the book down. This is such a real story that people need to know, the writing style is effective and really quite eloquent and my eyes were opened to things that you just don’t know about when you are lucky to live a life without these kinds of problems. Really well put together book and I hope it spreads Cash’s story across the country and that it helps spark change in this corrupt and selfish society.

TW: domestic abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, explicit language and discussions of sexual content

Thank you very much to Netgalley and Penguin Random House for allowing me to read an eARC copy of Skint Estate.

Wow. All I can say to this book is Wow. It was a real eye-opener; in my job i'm no stranger to working with people who are in the depths of poverty but actually reading this deep and real experience of someone living below the poverty line was quite harrowing. I cannot imagine how Cash had such power to get up every day and carry on living. She was let down by almost everyone in her life; family, friends, loved ones, and professionals who are meant to be there to support you in the worst of times.

Cash doesn't hold back. And I don't think she should; this is the real experience of so many people and it needs to be shouted across the screens. People need to stand up and take notice and actually start doing something to change. This story just made me ache. I admire her bravery and her strength and her just real grit and determination. In the face of all this crap, she manages to have humour and an insane amount of love for her daughter. Everything Cash does she does for her daughter and that love she has for her is the thing that keeps her going. I read this in practically one sitting and literally couldn't put it down; any chance I had to pick it up and read another few pages I did.

The only only reason I gave it four stars was because the structure of the book was at times, just really confusing. The timeline jumps around quite a lot and it gets confusing at what stage in her life Cash is.

This book takes you to places you do not want to go but that you need to go to understand just what other people's lives are like. I highly recommend picking this one up but it is definitely not an easy read.

Publish Date: 12th March 2020

An amazing insight to life that isn’t filled with easy options and being saved. A true account of the horror of trying to just survive in modern day Britain.

Relatable to people who have struggled and are still struggling to find a path in life where they no longer have to worry about who is coming to the door or what that next phone call will be or even if they can afford to eat that day.

Heartbreaking in places but worth a read no matter who you are or where you come from

I read this in two sittings as found myself totally caught up! I enjoyed the conversational tone and Cash's humorous style of writing, however I do find her to be abit of an unreliable narrator at times. Not in any way saying that the events didn't happen, just that they would have read better in chronological order (for me at least).

This a brutal and unflinching look at Tory Britain's appalling treatment of poor people, and how our amazing welfare system that was so great in the 1960's and 1970's has never really recovered from Margaret Thatcher's time in power in the 1980's.

Probably not for everyone due to the language and almost every bodily function / fluid imaginable is part of Cash's story, however I loved it. Apart from the fact that Cash reeaalllly doesn't seem to like Pontefract or Wakefield (I'm from Pontefract ha-ha) I think we could be pals.

Thank you to Netgalley and Penguin random house UK for a this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Having read some articles about Cash Carraway I was interested to find she had written a memoir, but then I saw the title and cover of the book and I have to admit I was really put off as it reminded me of a sociology set book from the 1970s!
However, I was pleased I did read it as Ms Carraway is warm, witty and wise; I laughed with her and cried for her and women in a similar position with seemingly no future to live for. I respect truth and ability to survive for her daughter, but most of all I feel ashamed that as a country we still haven't risen up against austerity and inequality.
Thank you to netgalley and penguin books for an advance copy of this book

What a read! The first few pages left me feeling I wasn’t going to get into this book but then I did and wow!
It’s very down to earth, a very gritty, truthful insight into what living in real poverty in the UK is like.
There is a certain humour alongside the shocking and sad stories of her life.

My rating: ⭐⭐ ⭐ ⭐4 stars (out of 5)

I found Skint Estate to be a truly compulsive read. Cash is a great writer, and she tells her personal stories with depth and feeling. Yet it's the way that she always sets them against the wider context that makes this book a must read. For behind every story detailing her struggle to gain secure housing, her desire to find secure love, to ensure her daughter has what she needs, there is a Government that impoverishes through the name of austerity. There are also, abusive partners the law never quite manages to punish, neglectful parents, and a myriad of policies that make life for single, particularly working class parents based in London, basically impossible.

It's a book that should make you angry and frustrated and compels you into political action. I urge everyone to read it.

I had heard of cash carraway via her Instagram page. Many parts of the novel were heartbreaking in their honesty and completely realistic as a single mother. However some parts were clearly dramatised for effect.
Well worth a read

Cash Carraway's memoir 'Skint Estate' details her experiences raising her daughter alone in a succession of refuges, tenuous private rentals and with only zero hours jobs to keep them afloat. She is impassioned and sheds vivid light on the poverty trap particularly as it affects single mothers. The memoir is a compelling and very relevant read...and yet, and yet......

Part of me doesn't want to write what I am now going to write because Cash Carraway herself would instantly dismiss both me and my opinions, as she does throughout her book. Married - check. Middle class - check. Therefore I must be a tory, a bore, a coldplay fan...and nothing I have to say can possibly be valid or true. And yet, I am still going to say what I felt after reading this memoir which is...I don't buy it. I don't actually believe that it is true in substantial part. And the disbelief created in the reader has the quite tragic effect of undermining those sections of the memoir which undoubtedly are real and powerful. Some examples: I don't believe that she worked in peep show with a Russian called Vladimir who then threw her a.baby shower. I don't believe that she fake married a man who was previously like her pimp but who was then gay, and then she had a massively successful mum account on instagram for two years. I don't believe that every facebook friend told her to abort her baby; I don't believe that everyone she met in Kent was a racist...the list could go on.

Maybe the author is making a point- that she has a right to fictionalise or choreograph her truth - like so much of what she disapproves of in the middle.class world on Instagram. Fair enough - but the effect of the exaggerations and omissions is very disengaging. It is very difficult to feel.emotionally connected to a story you can't believe in.

Carraway herself is extremely and unapologetically opinionated...good for her. So I will be the same. I felt let down by the inauthenticity of this memoir. If the author told her actual truth and owned her own part in the decisions she made, it would.undermine nothing. It would be a much more powerful memoir as a result.

This book hits really really hard and is definitely a must-read for anyone in the UK. Whilst I’ve never been in the extreme position that Cash has, having come from a place of privilege, I could still really relate to the anger and exhaustion coming from her words. As someone who’s had to move out of my hometown near London because it was unaffordable, who works two jobs (one of them being zero hours, which is discussed A Lot) and my struggles with my mental health I felt this book in my bones and devoured it in one day.
When it comes to politics I’m 50% constantly furious and 50% completely burned out, and this helped ignite the flame of fury and ebb away at the burn-out.
Don’t vote Tory lads

A fascinating read, a series of stories in a memoir of how society treats who it considers to be lower working class. It’s funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. It’s not often I read a book twice but I would with this one. I’ve recommended this to a lot of people.