BOOKS
ASK THE AUTHOR
WORDS JAMES HODGE
MATTY PARKS
Holly Stars is a multi-talented queen who you may know from numerous avenues: the Instagram sensation behind the Posh Sue monologues; a Soho Theatre comedy regular; or the writer of West End smash hits, Death Drop, and its sequel, Death Drop 2. Now, she has written her debut novel, Murder in the Dressing Room, offering perhaps the campest premise in history: a drag mother murdered with a box of poisoned chocolates. But whodunnit? A Moneypenny impersonator? Comedy drag kings? A backflipping stunt queen? Here, Holly tells Attitude about her storytelling history, her favourite books and her dream casting for a movie adaptation… We also share our picks of the best recent reads, as well as our current favourite audiobook available on Audible.
Congratulations on the novel. Have you always been a storyteller?
Well, I started off having fun making oneminute Instagram videos telling stories about my nightmare neighbour, Posh Sue, and all the terrible things that she does to me. And people started asking: “Can you tell these stories live?” “Can you do them as a comedy set?” And the next thing I know, they’ve become an Edinburgh Fringe Festival show! They are longer these days because Sue’s only gone and got worse and done something absolutely outrageous… It’s flown, honestly, which has been fun — an adventure I was never expecting!