Rev Laura Chapman with Warren FitzGerald

Laura has a calling from God. But, like many other twentysomethings, she also loves booze, sex and funny cat videos. Will this make her a bad priest? The crusty white male custodians of the ministry think so. But Laura has different ideas.

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At theological college, despite hard partying and frequent hangovers, Laura is a good enough student to point out where the scripture is a misogynistic 'crock of shite'.

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Threatened with expulsion, Laura is silenced. For now. But she finds empowerment in pole fitness classes, and as a fully-fledged priest, older and wiser, she installs a pole in the vicarage, leaving visiting bishops agog.

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Laura, an outsider herself, knows the outsiders are who the church is there for - from the old man barred from his lover';s funeral to the young women in need of a secret abortion. But even Laura's powers of inclusivity are challenged when she has to eulogise at a paedophile's funeral and is hit on by a randy undertaker.

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Confessions of a Pole Dancing Priest, one woman's true-life odyssey of outrage through the patriarchal world of the church, is full of whip-smart comebacks, stinging one-liners and scalpel-sharp observations. Laura's story moves from episodes which are frank, crude, funny and rebellious to a traumatic conclusion of almost biblical proportions that speaks to the wisdom and humanity in all of us.

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                                             Confessions of a Pole Dancing Priest is Laura Chapman's first book.

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Co-author Warren FitzGerald has also collaborated on Marathon Mum, Breaking Dad, All in the Same Boat and The Go-Away Bird.