Virgin: Hollie McNish's words always sweep me away' Giovanna Fletcher

by Hollie McNish

Genres: Poetry, Feminism

160 pages, Hardcover

Published January 27, 2026

Reviews

[Greg S · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a powerfully feminist collection of poems. Full of passion and kindness and love and sex. Full of lines that made me gasp or call out in agreed frustration. Some are very funny or full of gorgeous nostalgia. Some are brilliantly political. Above all I get the impression that Hollie McNish is clearly just a good person who cares deeply about the human experience.

[Salomée Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

I feel so honoured I was able to read this before its publication date. I'm a huge fan of everything / anything Hollie McNish writes and this book was, once again, a delight. I love how she played with form more and reading the poems asked us readers to be more engaged and interact with the pieces in different ways/through different languages too sometimes! Hollie McNish is a national treasure and I am so happy she's making poetry accessible, fun, yet profound, moving and political.

[Jennifer]

Absolutely cracking new offering from Hollie McNish, so much to love, so many thoroughly sensible beefs eloquently expressed (although there's much more joy than rage, and the rage is often expressed as wry sadness). This looks like a slim volume but turns out quite dense.

I was especially tickled that her acknowledgements are a poem, that she has a title and then "That's it, that's the poem" (entirely legitimately) There are so many concerns that may be familiar but expressed in from an original and compassionate angle. Several poems are already becoming very well known - 'Call me' in particular.

[Ruby Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

hollie you’ve done it again!

my favourites include:
- exchange rate
- second-hand bookshops are the lovers of the world
- blockbuster video stores
- waterslide
- grown woman speaking like a baby alert
- blood, in the world of wolves/stubble, in the world of war
- making love (#3)
- making love (#5)

[Amy B Garratt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks for Hollie for this uncorrected proof copy of her next collection. It’s absolutely beautiful, and I really enjoyed how each part was sectioned out and the introduction to each chapter of poems was really engaging.

[L · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Hollie McNish and pretty much buy every book she puts out at this point. My favourites are the longer books with sections of prose too, but this is still excellent. She articulates a lot of things that I think, and makes me think in different ways about others, both of which I enjoy.

[Tobias Lindquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Twenty or so of these poems are absolutely brilliant!

[Lynn · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5

[Jane Simmons-Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Becca Lloyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Genuinely her best work. Which says a lot because her work is always STUNNING. But this?? This is so clever. So beautiful. So intentional. So poetic.

[Aoife D · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hollies poems in this are as always both affirming and destabilising, articulating thoughts I already hold but don’t know how to articulate but whilst also making me view things from a new angle, in both an eyeopening and also in a duh is this not disarmingly obvious way simultaneously. When fleabag said I want someone to tell me what to think she should have just read literally anything by Hollie because the prose between the poems is what I base my life philosophy on. Also from now on I’ll be referring to Joseph as Virgin Joe (even if it is a social construct) Fucking patriarchy am I right girls.