The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar

I expect this will cause a lot of book club discussion and win some awards. It’s certainly very accomplished, quality writing, good sense of place and time. We follow the fortunes of prostitute Angelica Neal, ex-siren of Mrs Chappell’s bawdy house, who has ambitions to go it alone as a great courtesan since her protector, the duke, has died. Meanwhile, Jonah Hancock a canny shipping merchant is dismayed to find himself handed a curiosity in the form of a dead ‘mermaid’ instead of his returning ship and cargo. Of course, the clue is in the title, and these two eventually form a partnership, but how they get there is a series of mis-steps. The bawdy house is well portrayed, as we see inside the lives of these girls, in a world where women are possessions whether wives or whores, and I did feel for Angelica as she tries to overcome her circumstances. The real mermaid when it makes an appearance is intriguingly there but not there, which is clever. Although she speaks to us intermittently, which is where the book wanders into magical realism. I always want to know at the end of a historical novel, whether there is any basis in truth – was there a ‘mermaid’ doing the rounds of Georgian London, which started this idea – but we’re not told. Along the lines of The Essex Serpent, so if you liked that give it a go.