Skin Two was founded in 1983, as a fetish club in a Soho basement. In 1984, the first issue of Skin Two was a 16-page black and white magazine, put together by editor Tim Woodward and photographer Grace Lau. Only 1000 copies were printed, aimed at a small group of people who enjoyed rubber, bondage, sado-masochism and fetishism in all its glory. The small group turned out to be much larger than expected. Skin Two slowly grew into a 116 page colour magazine, then the big annual Skin Two Rubber Ball, a fetish clothing label, films and a website. This was the catalyst which let to the growth of the modern fetish scene, which now stretches from the USA to Europe to Japan and Australia...

Skin Two: Fetish Yearbook 2009 is the first publication to be printed since the editor Tim Woodward decided to transform the brand into something with even more class than the magazine.

Those that subscribed to the magazine will feel right at home here, as a lot of the style and content is similar to material that appeared in the magazines. However, now this is presented in book form, there is more creative use of photography and the end result feels more like a quality coffeetable edition than a magazine with hard cover.

This publication, which is tightly squeezed into 112 pages, has a little of something for everyone. We start off with a rundown of the major fetish events taking place around the world (mainly UK, USA, Germany and France) with each event commanding at least a page worth of photographs and information on the general theme, the dates and official websites.

There are also features on the relationship between gay and heterosexual BDSM communities; sexual censorship in both the UK and USA; a look at Alan Moore and former Skin Two artist Melinda Gebbie's Lost Girls project; comment pieces on gay leather's trendsetters and the closure of Coffee, Cake & Kink in London; three photography features; three fetish art pieces; a fictional tale revolving around the world of a dominatrix; and the good old Skin Two Directory of fetish advertisements.

More books are planned for the future which will focus on specific aspects of fetishism and BDSM, and if they are only half as informative as this release then subscribers to Skin Two are in for a treat.

If you are a real fetish lover then this is the only publication that's worth subscribing to.

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Heather Simpson