Hollie McNish is a poet and spoken word artist and was UK Slam poetry champion in 2009. She has released two spoken word albums and a poetry collection. Films of her poems have repeatedly gone viral, some receiving over one million YouTube views in just over a week.




Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s ‘The Charge of the Light Brigade’ was written in 1854 whilst Tennyson was Poet Laureate. The poem is about an incident during the Crimean War where a miscommunication led to a large number of British casualties. Hollie wrote her own response poem, challenging some of Tennyson’s militaristic attitudes.
Hollie McNish’s poem ‘British National Breakfast’ deals with anti-immigration feeling within Britain, set against the dependence on other nations for maintaining a ‘British’ lifestyle.
Writing resources – Hollie McNish and Alfred, Lord Tennyson