Skint Estate is all at once captivating, raw, funny, highly emotive, and provocative in how it portrays the stark reality of life living on the poverty line. Cash Carraway brings a brilliant and original voice with bold, graphic descriptions of the people and situations she encounters. She tells her story with a dark sense of humour in places, but the reality of the life she tells is shocking. There's food banks, violence, domestic abuse, alcohol, the anxiety of having to move home every six months with a young child in tow, and dealing with the stigma in society of being a working class single parent. Early on in the book I questioned what seemed to be assumptions that abusive relationships have a class association, but she later makes the point really well that no-one knows what's hiding behind the glossy veneer of a middle class lifestyle in all its Instagram perfection.

I wasn't keen on the political angle of the book and I don't think the points needed to be made so forcefully because Carraway's voice and story are so powerful anyway. I found the repeated references to blaming the Tory government for everything too ranting and extreme, and I wasn't clear on how the future suddenly became more bleak overnight in 2010. I was also put off by generalisations about Tory voters (all evil) and Labour voters (all good), and Kent as a county being described as 'racist', as if everyone in society could be labelled in that way on the basis of how they vote or where they live. I found the suggestion that the lack of women's refuges in London was part of a sinister social cleansing agenda by the government comparable to Nazi Germany completely absurd. There are undoubtedly some valid political points to be made in Carraway's story but I think they could have been more effectively made in more considered way with more reference to facts and evidence.

But overall I really enjoyed this book and it stayed with me long after finishing it. Highly recommended.

This was a very good (albeit sometimes graphic) description of a life in poverty. I definitely learned a lot, feel extremely guilty for my privilege, and am angrier than ever at the Tories and those who support them. I raced through it, and whilst it’s hard to describe this kind of memoir as enjoyable, there were moments of hope and bits to laugh at too. Would highly recommend.

Hard to read in this day and age. Poverty the benefits system and where people are let down. True raw and brutal. Opens your eyes that people live this way. We are supposed to be a country that’s well off known for giving to anyone who comes here!!! While letting down our own

I had heard a lot about this book before I requested it, so was glad to have the chance to read it. Unsurprisingly, I found it very shocking, and I am full of admiration for the author, for the way in which she has dealt with everything that has happened in her life. It is unacceptable that people are unable to have a safe home, with enough to eat, in 2020. However, the writing style is often rather odd, and in some places seems unfinished. I also felt that there was a lot of unnecessary swearing, and excessive description of bodily functions - yes, this is designed to shock, but it felt like a constant bombardment. I also found the book off-putting with its rather childish assertion that everyone who votes Labour is a caring altruistic sort of person, whilst everyone who votes Conservative is an evil misanthrope. I also found the author's suggestion that it doesn't matter if middle-class people are mugged, as they can afford to replace the items they have been robbed of extremely offensive. Not a book I will be recommending, which is a shame as a lot of people are sadly unaware of how a lot of unfortunate people live their lives.

I found it hard to put this book down and finished it in two sittings. It's written with raw energy and humour and yet I was left feeling depressed. The author made her voice heard, but she is in a minority and the country continues to vote conservative and brush poverty under the carpet.

While this is in parts an interesting read it's also quite disturbing knowing people live this life.
It can make for upsetting readings knowing it's not a fictional story. Human beings should not be struggling to feed themselves, relying on foodbanks, handouts. Living in slums, facing domestic abuse.
Had this been written as a fictional story I think it would have sat a little more comfortable knowing it was just made up.
This didn't take me long to read and while it was interesting I struggled in parts with it and found it felt a little rushed or a little repetitive in parts.
It must have been quite difficult I think for the author to write this book.

Skint Estate should never have been written.

Skint Estate should never have been written because no-one in Britain should have to experience the circumstances described by the author. Food banks, zero hours contracts, extorting landlords, domestic abuse - none of these should be a part of our society. The stark reality is that there is no social justice for people like the author, who writes with an alternating sense of desperation and resignation.

If you want to know what poverty is really like, read this book.

This is the memoir of a woman who is not a stain on society. She’s not a shameful secret, stealing money from the government. She’s not lazy, or greedy. She’s a single mother, raising a child in a city she loves, with no support network and a history of domestic abuse. Cash Carraway is just one voice in millions that we never hear. Forgotten and ignored. This is her story, her life - but unfortunately it’s far from unique.

I finished this in one day. Cash has a brash, sometimes aggressive writing style that is both compelling and jarring to read. She can certainly get her point across, and it’s an important one at that. She talks of a violent childhood, leading to a violent adulthood and pregnancy. Alone, scared - but excited to finally have somebody to love, and be loved in return. She talks about being ignored and stigmatised throughout her time as a single mother - people just don’t listen to women like her. I knew going in this would be dark at times, bleak and depressing, but I wasn’t expecting it to raise so much anger in me. Anger at these women being overlooked, abandoned when they are at their most vulnerable by a government that doesn’t care. The shame and despair, relying on zero hour jobs and food banks to survive. Living below the poverty line, stealing sanitary towels because you can’t afford them, and thinking of suicide as your only escape from this life. At times it was devastatingly heartbreaking.

The main positive I took is the absolute love Cash so clearly has for her daughter. Together they are a formidable team and have bonded in a way that only their shared life experiences could bring. Also, the chapter surrounding the dilapidated women’s refuge and subsequent (if brief) unification of the women, and their solidarity to bring about change showed a small glimmer of hope on an otherwise desolate landscape. These women need a voice, they need an opportunity to voice it, and I applaud Penguin for giving Cash the stage to do it on.

The reason I can’t rate this higher is really down to the structure of the writing, which gets a bit messy towards the end of the book. A few chapters seem to loose steam, or have a strange writing style to them, and the chronology goes a bit haywire. Sometimes I also found the writing a bit too ‘out there’. I didn’t mind the swearing (although after a while it felt a bit gratuitous) but I’d have preferred some context with the strange porn style scene I got near the end - which goes made me feel uncomfortable and felt entirely out of place. It lessened her important message.

Ultimately, this is an honest and harsh memoir from a voice that needs to be heard. They’re all voices that need to be heard. The women. The survivors. Those living but not thriving. Those slowly dying due to a government that wants to erase their existence. Given the way the UK voted recently, this should be required reading.

Skint Estate by Cash Carraway isn't for everyone, numerous bodily functions are ,described in detail , scatological, gynaecological, menstrual and sexual. Cash tells it like it is and some will be offended. More offensive to me was hearing about the way vulnerable people are being "cleansed" from rich London Boroughs to make room for the more affluent side of society and the way women are treated that makes them seek the shelter of Refuges.
Cash, and I'll use her first name as I felt I knew her very well by the end of the book, has certainly seen a lot of life, from her abusive childhood ,working in the sex industry from her teens , alone and pregnant in a Woman's Refuge through life as a social media "Influencer" then back down to earth again with a bang and yet another Refuge before life finally began to work out for her.
The book is brutally honest and Cash admits to her many mistakes and unwise relationships but through it all she keeps going, with a fairly major blip along the way, despite the knockbacks for the sake of her Daughter. Her love for her Daughter probably saves her life and she movingly tells us of finding unconditional love for the first time when she becomes a mother.
This is a moving book,a shocking book ,a political book and often an angry book ,Cash's writing is very much stream of consciousness and she certainly speaks her mind. In the latter part of the book she tells us that she realises that telling people things about her life that others would probably not admit to she's opening herself up to a lot of public criticism. I'm sure she will from some quarters but hopefully more will listen to her message and realise quite how much of a struggle life is for the working classes in this country, not least women. There is quite a lot of political comment but it's all relevant to her story and that of increasing numbers of others in this country..
It's not all doom and gloom and there are many acts of kindness from often unexpected quarters shown in the book.
I read this book from start to finish on a day when I was supposed be doing other things but I was gripped by Cash's story and what she had to say about the reality of life for those often vilified in our glorious gutter press and exploited by cynical TV Executives happy to use life's less fortunate as a freak show. It says a lot about this country that if Cash hadn't had the price of a Taxi fare her daughter might well be dead,that's the reality of being poor.
Great book,amazing woman.
Big thanks to Cash Carraway, Penguin Random House and Netgalley for the AFC in return for an honest review.