One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock finds one of his captains waiting eagerly on his doorstep. He has sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid.

As gossip spreads through the docks, coffee shops, parlours and brothels, everyone wants to see Mr Hancock’s marvel. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society, where he meets Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on… and a courtesan of great accomplishment. This meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course.

What will be the cost of their ambitions? And will they be able to escape the legendary destructive power a mermaid is said to possess?

My Review

Let me just say that you will need to be patient. It’s a long book which meanders along, sometimes not knowing exactly where it is going, and I occasionally struggled to follow the intertwining plot strands. So why 5 stars I hear you ask? Many reasons. The stories are richly woven, the characters beautifully drawn, and the language both masterful and poetic. And then there’s Juliet Stephenson’s narration which is always amazing.

The main strands include the story of widower Jonah Hancock, a merchant whose ship has been sold in exchange for a mermaid. At first he is horrified, but then he sees the potential. He is ably helped by his niece, 14-year-old Suki, probably my favourite character.

Then we have Angelica Neal, prostitute and courtesan, and Jonah is captivated by her beauty. Her ‘housekeeper’ Eliza Frost has her own story, but that comes much later.

Mrs Chappell runs a high class brothel, where ‘gentleman’ go for their entertainment. Some of the scenes are quite shocking, so be prepared. There is a lot of historical detail about the brothel, its clientele, and the often very young girls who work there, and some of it shows the racial prejudice and outright misogyny of the time, much of which is still relevant today. Just listen to the heated exchange between Eleanor (one of the girls) and the ghastly Georgie, Angelica’s young lover.

I’m not sure how to describe this book. It’s very different from my usual read. It has elements of magical realism, and while it is trying to tell us about the dreadful lives of women in particular, and the poor in Georgian England, it’s also trying to make a point morally and philosophically, and for me it definitely succeeded. Ultimately, be careful what you wish for!

About the Author

Imogen studied Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History at UEA’s Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts before going on to work in museums. She began to write small pieces of fiction inspired by the artefacts she worked with and around, and in 2013 won the Malcolm Bradbury Memorial Scholarship to study for an MA in Creative Writing at UEA.

She won the Curtis Brown Prize for her dissertation, which grew into a novel titled The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock. An early draft was a finalist in the MsLexia First Novel Competition 2015, and it was also one of three entries shortlisted for the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers’ Award.

Imogen lives, works, and walks around south-east London – an area whose history she takes a keen interest in – and her first novel, The Mermaid & Mrs Hancock, was published in 2018.