Imogen Hermes Gowar is an author with a particular interest in history. Her first novel, the Sunday Times bestseller The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, was a finalist for the MsLexia First Novel Award and the Deborah Rogers Prize; shortlisted for the Women's Prize For Fiction and the Sunday Times PFD Young Writer of the Year Award; and longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize. It won a Betty Trask Award. Her short fiction has been included in the Virago collection HAG: Forgotten Folk Tales Retold, and the bestselling The Haunting Season. She is also the author of Eleanor, an augmented reality walking tour of medieval Norwich.