The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock

**THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Wonderful...completely transporting' Madeline Miller, bestselling author of Circe** 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... 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? ________________ PRAISE FOR THE MERMAID AND MRS HANCOCK: 'Full of rich detail' Stylist 'A gloriously assured debut, set in a beautifully drawn London' Red Magazine 'A deliciously salty slab of historical fiction' Daily Telegraph 'A wonderful read' Nina Stibbe 'A dizzyingly good debut' The Times 'Imogen Hermes Gowar delights in the feminine fakery of mermaids, but as a writer she is the real deal' Hermione Eyre, author of Viper Wine