Slug

Critics Review

• Piercing poetry . . . This is exactly what we all need. The inimitable words of poet/goddess Hollie McNish once again holds up honest, damn funny and refreshing takes on the everydayness of our lives: the social demands, sex and orgasms, our bodies, judgement from friends (and ourselves). Never have we needed her more

  Stylist

• An intoxicating mixture of poetry and prose, [Slug] is a taboo-busting delight . . . McNish’s poems are direct, comic, tragic, warm, thought-provoking and often come with a sting in the tale, but her prose also flows off the page like red wine freely swilled with friends on a night out, or in . . . McNish effortlessly navigates the bitter and sweet throughout . . . There is an articulate approachability to all her writing . . . She is clear-sighted on why we need to talk about menstruation, masturbation and all sorts of gender and race inequalities, normalising these normal topics . . . McNish is eminently readable and relatable because she is both fallible and fascinating

  Scotsman

• I love Hollie’s poems. There is such raw honesty and warmth and often humour within them. She is one of the best poets we have

  Matt Haig

• McNish has a striking capacity for intimacy in places least expected. There are no tricks in her work, except like all the best magicians and wordsmiths, I can see what she’s doing but not how she did it. The poetry world needs a Tracey Emin like the art world did. It’s Hollie McNish

  Lemn Sissay

• No one blends honesty, humour and humanity quite like poet and author Hollie McNish . . . Mixing prose and poetry, it’s an insight into McNish’s mind, spanning topics from motherhood to masturbation. We love this reminder to stuff our lives full of joy while we can; a tribute to life itself

  Red Magazine

• Funny, true, loving and lethal, Hollie McNish’s new collection Slug is a total joy

  Stylist

• As I read every few pages of Hollie McNish’s delightful new book, I was smiling, teeth out . . . . Slug is a sparkling mix of memoir, poetry, essays and short stories . . . Reading her feels like the relief you get when somebody else hears your most private worries and says: me too. She backs it all up with science, intimate confessions and wicked one-liners

  Telegraph

• I’ve loved her work for years

  Jo Brand

• A new collection from the exciting and divisive Ted Hughes Award winning poet and author of Nobody Told Me. This time she’s tackling birth, death and female body parts with her characteristic confrontational gaze

  Metro (Ten gripping books to look out for in 2021)

• For everyday pick-me-ups, rages, frustrations, joy and belly laughs, Hollie McNish’s books of poetry and essays are best kept on your bedside table to break open as required . . . Laugh-out-loud funny – keep it close

  Stylist

• Gloriously earthy and accessible, McNish’s mash-up of prose and poetry covers the modern female condition with lashings of wit, intelligence and irreverent wisdom

  Waterstones (blog)

• Hollie is a total wordsmith. She makes me howl with laughter one moment and burst into tears the next

  Paapa Essiedu

• Gorgeous fingering poems

  Bryony Gordon, author of Mad Girl and The Wrong Knickers

• Hollie always articulates exactly how I feel, like she lives in my head

  Charly Cox, author of Validate Me and She Must Be Mad

• Honest and insightful, hilarious and impudent. We could all do with paying attention to what McNish tells us through her writing, where she directs our attention and the worlds she opens

  Anthony Anaxagorou, author of After the Formalities

• Slug covers so much – motherhood, gender, lockdown, loss, sex and a multitude of other topics – and yet Hollie McNish explores each with such care, nuance and wit. Hugely moving, very funny, this is an irreverent, uplifting and sharp collection of prose, poetry and fiction

  Anna James, former editor at The Bookseller and author of the Pages & Co series

• From the defiant title to the irreverent, incisive and transgressive poetry within, Slug is an encyclopedia for negotiating twenty-first century living. McNish’s work is a constant challenge to sexism, racism, intolerance and bigotry, each piece delivered with the swag of a girl queuing up outside the Headteacher’s office. Whatever the subject, the result is warm, often hilarious and sometimes furious. No other contemporary UK writer addresses the needs of women and mothers more directly and consistently than McNish. Her voice is relevant, vibrant and defiant. She just blew smoke in your face

  Joelle Taylor, poet, playwright and author

• Slug is a great call to arms for women and their bodies

  Athena Lamnisos, CEO of Eve Appeal charity

• Reading this book is like sharing secrets with your best friend. It’s funny, it’s sometimes salacious, it’s honest, at times heart-breaking, angry and most of all deeply human

  Doula Magazine

• Within the first six pages I had phoned my dad to tell him I love him and had a crying fit about how much I miss my gran, so well done I say

  Shappi Khorsandi

• I can’t take my ears off her

  Benjamin Zephaniah

• Makes so many of us feel seen . . . [Hollie] quickly breaks the heart and then heals it, before you have time to even take a breath

  Kara Scott, TV personality, journalist and poker player