Imogen Hermes Gowar

Imogen Hermes Gowar studied Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History before going on to work in museums where she began to write fiction inspired by the artefacts she worked with. Her first novel, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, was a finalist in the MsLexia First Novel Competition, has been shortlisted for the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers’ Award and has been longlisted for the Women's Prize for Fiction and the Desmond Elliott Prize 2018.

One September evening in 1785, the merchant Jonah Hancock hears urgent knocking on his front door. One of his captains is waiting eagerly on the step and he’s sold Jonah’s ship for what appears to be a mermaid. Its arrival spins him out of his ordinary existence and through the doors of high society. At an opulent party, he makes the acquaintance of Angelica Neal, the most desirable woman he has ever laid eyes on but this meeting will steer both their lives onto a dangerous new course where priceless things come at the greatest cost.

‘A brilliantly plotted story of mermaids, madams and intrigue in 1780s London’, The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock is gaining traction and acclaim across the literary scene.