The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar: book review

The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock (20158) is set in the English fishing village of Deptford from 1785.

Widower and ship merchant Jonah Hancock is 45 years old, with only his sister Hester and niece Sukie visiting once a month. Captain Tysoe Jones knocks on Hancock’s door with news that he has sold Hancock’s ship for something ‘precious’ from the coast of Java: a canvas bag with a ‘genuine’ dead mermaid the size of an infant. What is Hancock to do with this ‘dismaying oddity’ that he did not order?

Widow Angelica Neal is an independent woman with many friends. She has an ambition: to be successful.

Word of the mermaid travels throughout London and people flock to see this strange sea creature. Some pray in order to save them from the mermaid’s destructive power. ‘He cannot credit it. Members of Parliament, titled men, with the most sharpened intellect and loftiest ambition, have been drawn to something he, Mr Hancock, brought before them.’ Jonah Hancock certainly didn’t expect this kind of attention that brings him great profit. He thinks, ‘I am a rich man. I have a right to rare things.’

The widower Hancock meets the widow Neal and they marry. The mermaid and Mrs Hancock are the objects of obsession in Jonah Hancock’s life – until about six months into the marriage. What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is mine – so this novel is about the acquisition of a mermaid, and the price of obsession.

The plot rolls like steady waves, sometimes of interest and sometimes seemingly pointless. Nevertheless, the writing is pleasant, particularly the historical descriptions of London. Towards the end, the story gains some interest, as Mrs Hancock’s ambitions rise and so does her cunning. But for me, it was not a satisfying read.

MARTINA NICOLLSis an international aid and development consultant, and the authorof:- Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom(2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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