Skin Deep is an exploration of our largest and most visible organ, our skin. McGuinness explores the science of skin, its diseases – from acne, cancer, eczema and comorbidities – through to its care and how it can offer a commentary on society, identity, race and our emotions. It even discusses the popularity of Dr Pimple Popper
Our skin is our body’s connection to the outside world. It is how people first see and judge us and how we first see and judge others. It protects us in countless ways but when it goes wrong it can be devastating, both physiologically and psychologically.
McGuinness explores physical contact (wanted and unwanted) and the location of urges that result in sexual desire and touch deprivation. She talks about how the skincare and beauty industries target our insecurities around our skin (the three things you need for ‘perfect’ skin are SPF, genes, and money) and how tattoos showcase one’s identity, culture, longing for change, and even help heal from trauma.
Witty, peppered with anecdotes, intimate stories, and entertaining analogies, McGuinness’s Skin Deep is a well-researched book packed to the rafters with insights, featuring extracts from peer-reviewed research papers and studies, surgeons, dermatologists, historians and therapists.
This is a fascinating insight into the role skin plays in our lives and the link between dermatology, psychology, anthropology, politics, and philosophy.
Reviewed by Amber Sawyer
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m Phillipa McGuinness, writer, cultural commentator, and long-time publisher. A lover of big ideas and even bigger conversations, I write narrative non-fiction, as well as opinion pieces and essays.
I made the leap into full-time writing in 2020, to develop my new book, Skin Deep: the inside story of our outer selves. A cultural history of skin – what it is, what we do to it, and what it does to us – published by Penguin in March 2022.
My first book The Year Everything Changed: 2001 was published by Penguin in 2018 and was described by Anna Funder as ‘a panoramic, rip-roaring ride’.
I’ve joked that the gateway drug that eased me out of publishing and into writing was my edited collection Copyfight, published by NewSouth Publishing in 2015. It featured writers, musicians, playwrights, screenwriters, and producers reflecting on making art in a digital world where consumers expect everything to be free.
For almost two decades, I helped shape the national conversation as publisher at NewSouth/UNSW Press, and before that Cambridge University Press. I commissioned and published hundreds of books, particularly in Australian history, Asian studies, politics, art and culture, memoir and biography, and popular science. Many have won or been shortlisted for major prizes, including the Prime Minister’s History Award, the NSW Premier’s Awards for Australian History and the Douglas Stewart Prize for non-fiction, the Victorian Premier’s Literary Award for non-fiction, the Colin Roderick Award, the Ernest Scott History Prize and the Stella Prize. NewSouth won the ABIA Small Publisher of the Year Award in 2016 and 2017. As a frequent keynote speaker at academic and publishing conferences, I’ve shared my passionate belief in university presses’ unique ability to bring cutting-edge research and great writing to broad audiences.
I am an Australia Council peer and was an expert assessor for the Australian Research Council, Humanities and Creative Arts. I was a member of the Independent Publishers Committee of the Australian Publishers’ Association. I have judged various literary awards, including the Australian Book Review Calibre prize and the Walkley non-fiction book award.
I live in Sydney with my husband and two children. I’d love you to read my books, occasional think pieces, and join me at writers’ festivals and other literary events, where I’m a regular panelist.
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