One year on since Holly’s Hell was published

“You and I just couldn’t believe how much things blew up as soon as the book was released.”

To celebrate one year since Holly’s Hell – Seven Years in a Thai Prison by Holly Deane-Johns was published, I invited Holly back on the Hembury Books Podcast.

It’s a very special one for me, as it was the first book we ever published. I remember waking up on the day of publication and feeling so nervous and rushing to check Amazon – and then freaking out because the US time zone difference still showed her book as ‘forthcoming.’

By noon in Sydney, it started going gangbusters. Holly has done over a hundred interviews, from BBC to Women’s Weekly and The Project. She is still giving regular talks and is giving one tomorrow at Busseltown Library in Perth.

This is testament to Holly’s powerful story of redemption, and the expertise and drive shown by her book publicist, Nicole Webb.

A spread in Women’s Weekly – one of many arranged by publicist Nicole Webb.

She also now works full-time as a peer worker at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre and absolutely loves it. No more FIFO work or Uber driving.

Holly Deane-Johns and Jessica Mudditt at the ABC Studios in Sydney.

Holly first the idea for a book when she was arrested in Thailand in 2001. The idea flashed through her mind and she started writing it while in prison. She documents the shocking conditions of Thai women’s prisons and how she woke up one morning in the overcrowded cell and realised that she had messed up her life. Then and there, she quit heroin.

I have actually been to the prison where Holly was kept, but she had been transferred to Australia by then. I was a journalist in Myanmar and I came to Thailand to do a story on the strange practice of tourists visiting Thai prisons (and bringing food and news of the outside world, which Holly was immensely grateful for). I had a connection at the Australian Embassy in Thailand who connected me with Holly when I established Hembury Books.

Holly and I immediately hit it off and she is a dear friend to me. My kids also love her and call her Aunty Holly!