The Mermaid Collection

Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection:Helen McCloy'sThrough A Glass, Darklywith a foreword by Gillian McAllisterRediscover the brilliance of Through A Glass, Darkly in the Mermaid Collection – timeless classics by pioneering female authors, beautifully reissued to enchant today’s readers.The jewel in the crown of the beloved Dr Basil Willing mysteries - when unassuming art teacher Faustina Crayle loses her second job in quick succession, only Basil can help, and it goes from bad to worse for Faustina when a body is found . . .With a foreword by Gillian McAllister‘They watch me all the time. In and out of the classroom, their eyes are always following me . . .’Quiet, gentle, young Faustina Crayle is dismissed from her teaching position at Brereton School for Girls after just a few weeks. She is given no explanation, but it’s clear certain staff and pupils fear her.Her friend and fellow teacher Gisela contacts psychologist and sleuth Dr Bas

Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing the Mermaid collection:Fay Weldon'sDown Among The Womenwith a foreword by Jenny ColganRediscover the brilliance of Down Among the Women in the Mermaid Collection – timeless classics by pioneering female authors, beautifully reissued to enchant today’s readers.A classic from beloved national treasure Fay Weldon sees four women break the shackles of patriarchy and domesticity in 1950s London, from the author ofThe Lives and Loves of a She-DevilWith a foreword by Jenny Colgan‘Down among the women. What a place to be!’So says Wanda, a former radical who left her husband and raised her daughter Scarlet to be as liberated as she. But twenty-year-old Scarlet, with an abortion already behind her, is about to discover real liberation – as a single mother in Fifties’ London.Yet Scarlet’s not alone. Meet her friends: Sylvia, the born victim; respectable Jocelyn, willingly trapped in a dull, bourgeois marriage; Audrey, bristling to break fr

Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection:Margaret Kennedy'sLucy Carmichaelwith a foreword by Lucy ManganRediscover the brilliance of Lucy Carmichael in the Mermaid Collection – timeless classics by pioneering female authors, beautifully reissued to enchant today’s readers.Originally published in 1951 from the author of beloved holiday classicThe Feastcomes a glorious coming-of-age tale about a heroine whose wedding day does not go entirely to plan . . .With a foreword by Lucy Mangan***‘People seem to get over things, don’t they? I don’t know how, but they do – ordinary people. I’m very ordinary, so I expect I shall do what they do.’Lucy Carmichael is jilted at the altar. But no matter. Her loving and kind family never liked her explorer fiancé anyway.Instead of moping or falling into her supportive family’s arms, however, Lucy abandons their suburban home. Heading for the country, she takes up a teaching position in the industrial town of Ra

Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection:Lettice Cooper'sFennywith a foreword by Jennie GodfreyRediscover the brilliance of Fenny in the Mermaid Collection – timeless classics by pioneering female authors, beautifully reissued to enchant today’s readers.A richly evocative coming-of-age novel, Fenny follows a young English governess who falls deeply in love with Tuscany in 1933, even as she faces the pain of unrequited love and the shadows of political unrest.With a foreword by Jennie Godfrey‘The strange city through which they drove was the scenery of a dream . . .’Yorkshire teacher Ellen Fenwick has never been abroad.But when her mother dies, this young woman finds herself taking a position as governess to an English girl in Florence in the summer of 1933.Little does Ellen realise how this girl, Juliet, and her family will claim her.For as the summer passes, Ellen falls so in love with Italy and her new home that she cannot bear to leave –