The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock is the debut novel by UEA alumna Imogen Hermes Gowar and is published by Vintage this week. Imogen graduated from UEA with a BA in Archaeology, Anthropology and Art History in 2012 and from the MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) in 2014, when she was the winner of the Curtis Brown Award. An early draft of her novel, which she began while completing her MA, was a finalist in the MsLexia First Novel Competition in 2015 and was shortlisted for the inaugural Deborah Rogers Foundation Writers’ Award. After a ten-publisher auction, Vintage secured the rights to the novel for a six figure sum last year. Earlier this month Imogen was selected as a ‘new writer to watch’ by both the Observer and the Independent.
The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar
