Hollie McNish - Slug: The Sunday Times Bestseller

ALSO BY HOLLIE McNISH

Nobody Told Me

Plum
Cherry Pie
Papers
Why I Ride
Offside

AUDIO

Versus
Hollie and the Metropole Orkest

FLEET

First published in Great Britain in 2021 by Fleet

Copyright Hollie McNish 2021

The moral right of the author has been asserted.

All characters and events in this publication, other than those clearly in the public domain, are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated i n any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-34972-634-2

Fleet

An imprint of

Little, Brown Book Group

Carmelite House

50 Victoria Embankment

London EC4Y 0DZ

An Hachette UK Company

www.hachette.co.uk

www.littlebrown.co.uk

For my grandmothers,
whod most likely have disowned me
for most of what is written here,
but whose conversations, time and tellings-off
have inspired at least half of it

and for my mum,
who is such a good mum
who told me so much more than her mum told her,
who was told almost nothing by her mother

You dont need to be told how to read a book. I imagine this isnt the first book youve ever read. If it is, then Im very honoured that youre here, and wish you the best of luck. Ive been told Im an easy read so hopefully itll be all right.

I am writing this because the book youre possibly about to read is not only fairly long, especially for a poetry-ish book, its also quite an odd mixture of memories in prose and essays and then poems and some short stories in between.

Thing is, I love poetry poetry is what I write the most but I also love chatting and, amongst other hobbies, chatting is probably what I do the most. In terms of reading, non-fiction is what I read the most. I like it all.

If a poem is good enough it should manage to stand alone without the reader or listener being given any back story or explanation to it. I believe this, and hope the poems in here can stand by themselves if needed. Despite this, when I read a poem written by someone else, I really like knowing a bit more about it. At live readings, I sometimes like the intros to the poems as much as the poems themselves.

When reading poetry books, I tend to delve behind the scenes first, or rummage around a bit in the poems history, partly because I find it interesting and sometimes, in all honesty, because I have no idea what the poem is about and I want to know. Sometimes poetry makes me feel a bit stupid. Sometimes I like this and let the words wash over me; sometimes I just want to know what is happening.

I also like to know other things about poems; why a poem was written, when, even where if it was in an exciting place or a pub I can then visit and sit in. Ive stayed in Browns Hotel as part of the Laugharne Festival in Wales and I swear the ros, despite being the sort of luminous pink hen do syrup that I still order even though it gives me the worst hangovers, had just a hint of Dylan Thomass pen ink to it.

One of my favourite poems in the world is Wilfred Owens Dulce et Decorum est. For me, its significant to know that whilst he wrote this war poem from personal experience as a young soldier, a poem supposedly drafted in Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh after he suffered shell shock in the Somme, Lord Tennyson wrote The Charge of the Light Brigade (which is one of my least favourite poems) after reading a newspaper story in The Times whilst he was Poet Laureate.

So this book is a mix of poems Ive written and some of the memories, thoughts or research that inspired them. It is sorted into seven themed sections with a short story between each section. There is no real reason for these stories other than that I also love writing stories and sometimes when Im reading non-fiction or poetry I crave a story.

So I hope you enjoy reading this book, however you choose to do so. Here are some possibilities:

From start to finish, in that order, if you have the time and desire. For the most immersive read as in, if you fancy doing the thing I love to do and read books in the places where they were written or set or thought of, perhaps even drinking the drink that was being drunk whilst the writing took place, then you might read this book either on an uncomfortable stool by an old metal desk next to your bed; in your bed between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m. when your kid (or pretend kid) has finally gone fully to sleep; on the train journey between Peterborough and Edinburgh staring at the east coast cliffs drinking tea sucked up through a Twix; in the Box Caf in Cambridge slurping the best lentil soup the world offers; in Dukes Bar in Yorkhill, Glasgow drinking ros or Prosecco with someone you want to either kiss or play chess with, or both.

For the most immersive experience reading the Blood section of this book, Id say wait till the heaviest, most cramping day of your period, or, if you dont have periods, then read this section whilst punching yourself lightly in the womb area whilst staining your pants with tomato ketchup or brown sauce. For the most immersive experience reading the Masturbation section, just take your time and choose the bits you like best.

Read the poems as you would in a book with just poems in it. If youre only here for the poems and want to read them without all the intros and outros and explanations and stories, then theres an index of poems at the back that you can use instead of the contents page.

From start to finish but skip the poems.

I wrote another book called Nobody Told Me. It had prose and poetry like this one. I was told by a lovely audience member after a gig in Cardiff that they really enjoyed it, but of course skipped all the poems. Of course. They said it just like that, almost like it was a given; a compliment even. I was slightly insulted but then remembered I also used to do this with Roald Dahl books I read as a kid. I hated when poems in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory got in the way of the story. I angrily ignored them all.

I really love poetry so Id be slightly sad if you did read the book this way, without at least trying a couple of poems out, but its also OK if you want. Just dont tell me at a gig.

Dip in and out as you wish.

There is an underlying order to this book and I spent quite a long time working it out. That said, its in no way vital. All the sections can be flicked through on their own.

So if you fancy a poem about pigeons or rainbows one minute and then a short story about birth the next, then just have a little leaf through the pages or the poetry index and see what jumps out at you. My titles arent too obscure. The poem about pigeons is called dublin pigeon. The poem about rainbows is called rainbow. The birth story is called Push.

Pretend to read it but dont actually read it.