All Things Georgian: Tales From the Long
Eighteenth-Century
By Joanne Major and Sarah Murden
Published by Pen and Sword
£25/$39.95 hardback
ISBN 978-1-526-744616Scandal, crime and romance: a mouth-
watering collection of Georgian titbitsThe Mermaid and Mrs Hancock
By Imogen Hermes Gowar
Published by Vintage
£8.99 paperback
ISBN 978-1-784-70599-2Voluptuous, haunting and
magical debut novelrounded off by a portrait of the man who,
more than any other individual, dominated
the era: “the profligate George IV, formerly
the Prince of Wales and the Prince
Regent”. His mistresses, his extravagance
and his prodigal greed were legendary, and
when he died – largely unmourned by his
subjects, according to his obituary in The
Times – an extraordinary period of British
history died with him.
recently out in paperback,
Imogen Hermes Gowar’s
first novel was something of a
publishing sensation when it
appeared in 2018. The fruit of
years of diligent research and
a passion for the period, The
Mermaid & Mrs Hancock is one
of those rare novels that grabs
you by the throat and hangs
in there until the final page,
relinquishing its hold only by
degrees over weeks and months.
To describe it as immersive
is to understate its impact; Gowar creates
an extraordinarily vivid world, peopled
by some unforgettable characters – every
one of whom could have stepped from the
pages of Joanne Major and Sarah Murden’s
entertaining collection of Tales From the
Long Eighteenth-Century, reviewed above.
Gowar’s inspiration for this entrancing
adventure came from her early career as a
gallery assistant at the British Museum. Her
favourite location was the Enlightenment
Gallery, which she has described as “a
clutter of stuff; natural history specimens,
mummies, all sorts” – including a “mermaid”,
one of the bizarre items brought back from
far-flung travels by those obsessive collectors
of curiosities who laid the foundations for
Britain’s great museums. Created from a
monkey’s body and a fish tail, with various
bits and bobs added for effect, it is a hideous
little thing, but its appearance at the
beginning of the novel sets in train a series
of events that take the reader, and
the protagonists, on a rollercoaster journey
of discovery.
The narrative begins in 1785, at the
Deptford home of Jonah Hancock, a
widower and shipowner who is presented
with the grotesque creature –
in a bell-jar – by the captain
of Hancock’s ship Calliope,
unheard of for more than a year
and presumed lost. The vessel
has indeed been forfeited, but
the captain is adamant that
the mermaid will earn its new
owner a fortune. And indeed it
does, displayed for the delight
of London’s sensation-seeking
masses.
Meanwhile in Soho, newly
freelance courtesan Angelica
Neal and her associate, Mrs Frost, are
concentrating their energies on finding
a gentleman protector so they can avoid
returning to the clutches of Mrs Chappell,
the deeply unsavoury “abbess” of King’s Place,
a brothel that caters to a demanding and
powerful clientele. The unlikely relationship
between gentle, middle-aged Hancock and
worldly, beautiful Angelica unfolds against a
background of excess, starting with a marine-
themed orgy described in astonishingly
graphic – and impeccably researched – detail.
Sounds, smells and flavours pour off the page;
violence and tragedy simmer on the streets
of the capital, and the nature of mermaids,
real or imagined, is explored with a delicate
intensity of feeling that lingers in the mind
like the sound of the ocean.