Rediscover 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 classic The Feast comes a glorious coming-of-age tale about a heroine whose wedding day does not go entirely to plan .

With a foreword by Lucy Mangan

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‘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 Ravonsbridge.

There, she finds solace in her work, in her new (rather gossipy) colleagues – and rediscovers her sensible young self.

But if Lucy has, despite everything, kept her head – where lies her heart?

Praise for Margaret Kennedy:

'She is not only a romantic but an anarchist, and she knows the ways of men and women very well indeed' Anita Brookner

'Kennedy was immensely popular in her heyday' Washington Post

'Margaret Kennedy's poised style, cool wit and skilful characterization kept her novels welcome for three decades' Cambridge Guide to Literature in English