Melissa told me she fell off her bike when she was little. She said the doctors had to sew her back together again. She said she’s never even heard of medical mermaids, and now everyone around us is taking her photograph.
Melissa means bee, and Singh means lion-blooded.
Sea lion.
Sea angel.
Brittle sea star.
Did you know a starfish is an asteroid?
And some brittle stars have six tentacles?
And some starfish can regrow their arms but, really, they’d rather not?
I squeeze Melissa’s inhaler in the palm of my hand, and then suddenly realise I’m still holding my breath.
We all come from the sea.
Blurry and ancient. Slowly evolving.
We are photographs, developing.
I wonder, can you see my heart?
Author’s Note
The history of fairy tales is a subject I’m forever fascinated by. Twisted stories that have weaved their way through the centuries, morphing and breeding under the spell of so many different storytellers. If you’d like to know more about the history of these beasts (for, really, what is a fairy tale if not alive?) then head over to my YouTube channel, where you can find a whole series on this very topic: youtube.com/jenvcampbell.
I talk about a lot of other book-related things there, too, and as a queer woman with a deformity, representation in the media is also a subject close to my heart, so you can find videos about that, as well.
Acknowledgements
Thank you to my editor, Lisa. Here’s to fairy tales, the weirder the better.
Thank you to my agent, Charlie, for not shouting when I said I was writing short stories instead of a novel.
Thank you to the team at Two Roads.
Thank you to booksellers, librarians and festival organisers.
Thank you to my writerly pals for your words of encouragement.
Thank you to those of you who watch my YouTube channel.
Thank you to my friends for listening to me talk about this book. A lot.
Thank you to my family.
Thank you to Miles.
And thank you.
You.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, reading this book. x
A Note on the Text
‘Margaret and Mary and the End of the World’ contains a few lines from the poems of Christina Rossetti.
‘Pebbles’ was first published in New Welsh Review.
About the Author
Jen Campbell is an award-winning poet and short story writer. She grew up in a small village by the sea in the north-east of England, and is the Sunday Times bestselling author of the Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops series and The Bookshop Book. She won an Eric Gregory Award in 2016, her poetry collection The Hungry Ghost Festival is published by The Rialto, and her children’s book Franklin’s Flying Bookshop is published by Thames & Hudson. Jen worked as a bookseller for ten years and talks about all things books over at youtube.com/jenvcampbell. She currently lives in London.