LEAP, the new imprint at Bonnier Books UK focusing on inspiring and informing positive change, has acquired This Happened to Me, an extraordinary memoir by child sex-trafficking expert and survivor Kate Price.
Carole Tonkinson, publisher of LEAP, acquired UK & Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, in a significant five-figure overnight pre-empt from Jenny Meyer at Jenny Meyer Literary Agency, on behalf of Brettne Bloom at The Book Group. It will be published in the U.S. by Gallery Books (Simon & Schuster) in August, and the U.K. will match with simultaneous publication.
Kate Price spent her early years in a small town in Pennsylvania, yearning to escape. After experiencing flashbacks and dissociation in adulthood, she worked with therapist Bessel van der Kolk to uncover the hidden trauma of her past – discovering that her father had abused and trafficked her as a child. Setting out to find the truth, Kate worked with a Boston Globe journalist for ten years, returning to her hometown to find proof. Now, in her exquisitely rendered memoir, which van der Kolk has called ‘brilliant and moving’ and which has garnered the support of author Jeannette Walls, Price describes how she broke free of that which had defined her childhood, to create a life and family on her own terms. From victim to advocate, from fearful child to empowered adult, and from despair to triumph, This Happened to Me is a story of astonishing resilience and breathtaking determination.
Kate Price said: ‘My memoir, This Happened to Me, is about healing and truth. I wrote this book to provide a roadmap of my healing for anyone affected by trauma. I know the power of books to transform one’s life, as books, libraries, and bookstores helped save my life. They’ve always made me feel safe, powerful, and unstoppable. I also want readers to learn that what happened to me as a child is still happening to children everywhere.’
Jenny Meyer said: ‘As I was reading Kate’s extraordinary memoir for the first time I knew immediately that it was something Carole Tonkinson just had to publish – I could not be more thrilled to have This Happened to Me among LEAP’s inaugural titles. Kate’s testimonial is some of the bravest writing I’ve encountered; it will touch every soul who reads it.’
Carole Tonkinson said: “When Kate’s manuscript came in, I couldn’t put it down. I circulated it to colleagues the same day and someone on the team said to me, ‘Every memoir these days is described as the new Educated but this really is it.’ I couldn’t agree more. This Happened to Me will doubtless become a classic to reference. Kate is not only a masterful writer but also her personal resilience and commitment to advocacy are beyond measure. She tackles painful subject matter, but in a way that leaves the reader marvelling at the hope and power of an individual’s capacity to face up to and rise above shocking truths and turn her energy toward creating a safer future.”
Price earned her master’s degree and Ph.D. and is now an Associate Research Scientist at the Wellesley Centers for Women, a gender-based research institute at Wellesley College. She is an internationally recognized child sex trafficking expert whose work has influenced the passage of state-level children’s human rights legislation in the U.S. She is a member of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children Child Sex Trafficking Expert Working Group as well as a founding Advisory Board member of the U.S. branch of End Child Prostitution and Trafficking. Price is the recipient of a Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize medal, a Mariam K. Chamberlain Dissertation Award from the International Centers for Research on Women and an American Association of University Women Dissertation Fellowship.
This Happened to Me will be published by LEAP on 5th August 2025 in Hardback, Trade Paperback, eBook and audio.
