Nobody Told Me

It was McNish’s poem Embarrassed – a reflection on society’s inability to cope with a mother breastfeeding her child in public – that first led me to her work. I shared it with everyone. 

Part diary, part poetry collection, Nobody Told Me is born of the same honesty and documents her experience from the moment she discovered she was pregnant at Glastonbury and through the first two years of her daughter’s life. 

There’s an immediacy that comes with the pieces being offered exactly how they were written, whether that was “at four AM, some on the loo...[or] at work”. Motherhood,… show more.

This is a memoir and poetry book rolled into one. It’s about the author’s experience of discovering she was pregnant at Glastonbury Festival and the three years afterward – taking us with her from pregnancy through to being the mother of a toddler. It is raw and funny and honest. It made me laugh and gasp and feel seen. I first came across Hollie’s poetry at a live event where she read from this book, and it made me furious and sad and I also laughed more than I had in a long time. This collection finds the magic of… show more.