Hollie Mcnish

Nobody Told Me Hollie Mcnish

There were many things that Hollie McNish didn't know before she was pregnant. How her family and friends would react; that Mr Whippy would be off the menu; how quickly ice can melt on a stomach. These were on top of the many other things she didn't know about babies: how to stand while holding one; how to do a poetry gig with your baby as a member of the audience; how drum'n'bass can make a great lullaby. And that's before you even start on toddlers: how to answer a question like 'is the world a jigsaw?'; dealing with a 10-hour train ride together; and how children can be caregivers, too. But Hollie learned. And she's still learning, slowly.

Nobody Told Me is a collection of poems and stories taken from Hollie's diaries - one person's thoughts on raising a child in modern Britain, on trying to become a parent in modern Britain, on sex, commercialism, feeding, gender and finding secret places to scream once in a while.