Hollie McNish is a poet, writer, and spoken-word artist. Hollie has published five books of poetry: Papers, Cherry Pie, Why I Ride, Nobody Told Me and Plum. Nobody Told Me won the 2016 Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, and is described by Alice O’Keeffe in The Guardian as “a scrappy, chaotic, heartfelt portrait of new motherhood”.
Hollie also organises poetry classes and workshops, mostly in schools and often for pupils who are struggling.
Juggling act
Just like the women that Hollie meets, Bess had to juggle the many competing demands on her time and body.
She had at least eight known pregnancies, possibly one miscarriage, and gave birth eight times. She had a large household to look after, which included stepchildren, grandchildren and members of her wider family.
She managed large household finances across several estates, ensuring rents from tenants were collected and servants were paid. She even, on occasion, had to bail out her male relatives who were being chased for unpaid debts.
When the stakes were high, such as the public scandal surrounding her marriage to Shrewsbury, she boldly defended her honour and her property against her husband’s attacks. Bess thus learned to juggle the demands of sixteenth century women’s lives.
