100,000+ Books, Games & Puzzles in-stock πŸ‡³πŸ‡Ώ

Thanks for supporting our NZ-owned independent bookstore ❀️ Overnight NZ Delivery πŸš€

Fenny

By Lettice Cooper
Series: The Mermaid Collection
0.0 (0 reviews)
Brief Description
Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection - Lettice Cooper's Fenny with a foreword by Jennie Godfrey. Yorkshire teacher Ellen Fenwick has never been abroad. But when her mother dies, this young woman finds herself taking a position as governess to... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
$3600
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks

Found a better price? Request a price match

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection - Lettice Cooper's Fenny with a foreword by Jennie Godfrey.

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 - even when her own hopes of love are cruelly thwarted. Even when the shadow of war falls across the country, she doesn't flee but clings on - for her friends, for those she loves more than herself.

Ellen - selfless, big-hearted, accepting - cannot know what is coming. Yet, she will not face it alone...

Series: The Mermaid Collection

View all
  • Through A Glass, Darkly
    Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection - Helen McCloy's Through A Glass, Darkly 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...
    By Helen McCloy
    Paperback
    $3600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Down Among the Women
    Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing the Mermaid collection - Fay Weldon's Down Among the Women with a foreword by Jenny Colgan. β€œDown 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...
    By Fay Weldon
    Paperback
    $3600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Pre-order
    Regiment of Women
    Discover your new favourite forgotten female classics with the Mermaid collection - No 8- Clemence Dane's Regiment of Women Miss Clare Hartill, teacher at a girls' boarding school, has a bewitching ability to get her own way, whether it is among the staff or the pupils who'll do anything to please her. When nineteen-year-old Alwynne Durand is hired, Clare takes...
    By Clemence Dane
    Paperback
    $3200
    Pre-order
    Out 25 Aug 2026
  • The Cost of Living
    Discover your new favourite forgotten female classics with the Mermaid collection - No 6- Kathleen Farrell's The Cost of Living with a foreword by Jane Fallon Idealistic Alexandra is throwing a party to meet a more glamorous crowd. Marianne, more sardonic, worries it'll be the usual sort. The party is in Alexandra's attic flat. Marianne will contribute a few bottles...
    By Kathleen Farrell
    Paperback
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Tortoise by Candlelight
    Discover your new favourite forgotten female classics with the Mermaid collection - No 5- Nina Bawden's Tortoise by Candlelight with a foreword by Eve Chase Fourteen-year-old Emmie Bean loves her family. But she worries about them too. Her mother is gone (no one will say where). Her father drinks instead of writing. Her younger brother Oliver has started stealing. And...
    By Nina Bawden
    Paperback
    $3200
    Elsewhere:
    $3299
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Lucy Carmichael
    Lucy Carmichael
    Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection - Margaret Kennedy's Lucy Carmichael 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....
    By Margaret Kennedy
    Paperback
    $3600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Fenny
    Celebrating 90 Years of Penguin Michael Joseph publishing with the Mermaid collection - Lettice Cooper's Fenny with a foreword by Jennie Godfrey. 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...
    By Lettice Cooper
    Paperback
    $3600
    Available
    Ships in 4-6 weeks
  • Answer in the Negative
    Discover your new favourite forgotten female classics with the Mermaid collection - No 7 - Henrietta Hamilton's Answer in the Negative with a foreword by Sophie Hannah. Frank Morningside, assistant at The National Press Archives on Fleet Street, is receiving nasty poison pen letters. His superior, Toby Lorn, wants to put a stop to it, so he calls on his...
    By Henrietta Hamilton
    Paperback
    Sold Out

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781405984157

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 11 September 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Books Ltd

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 27.0mm

Width: 128.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 336g

Pages: 416

Collections

Classic Fiction Classic General Fiction Fiction General Fiction Lettice Cooper Literary Fiction Penguin Books Series: The Mermaid Collection

About the Author

Lettice Cooper was born in 1897 and grew up in Leeds, where her father ran an engineering firm. After reading classics at Oxford, she worked in the family business while writing her first book, The Lighted Room. After a short period at the feminist weekly Time and Tide, she worked at the Ministry of Food during the war. Over the course of her life, she wrote some twenty novels, many of which convey her deep socialist convictions and a loyalty to her Yorkshire roots. Lettice Cooper was devoted to Italy, especially Tuscany, and used it as the setting for several novels, including Fenny. She lived contentedly with her staunchly Tory sister in a London flat, was a great encourager of young writers, and helped to establish Public Lending Right.

Also by Lettice Cooper

View all
  • Tea on Sunday
    On a cold winter's afternoon, Alberta Mansbridge waits at a table set with teacups for eight, musing over her guests. The ex-jailbird Barry, the nephew and his ghastly new flibbertijibbet of a wife, the Italian playboy, the old friend with whom she had so recently fallen out... Alberta returns upstairs to get herself ready. When the guests arrive, the door...
    By Lettice Cooper
    Paperback
    Sold Out

More from General Fiction

View all
  • The Wedding People
    'BEST READ OF THE YEAR SO FAR' THE TIMES 'BOOKS AS FUN AS THIS ONE ARE FEW AND FAR BETWEEN' GUARDIAN Phoebe Stone arrives at a grand beachside hotel in Rhode Island wearing her best dress and least comfortable shoes. Immediately she is mistaken for one of the wedding people β€” but she's actually the only guest at the Cornwall...
    By Alison Espach
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (3)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Throne of Glass Box Set (Paperback)
    Enter the realm. Unleash the darkness. Live the legend. Discover the worldwide phenomenon of the #1 New York Times-bestselling Throne of Glass series in this gorgeous 8-book box set! In a land without magic, an assassin is summoned to the castle. She has no love for the vicious king who rules from his throne of glass, but she has not...
    By Sarah J. Maas
    Set
    $12400
    Elsewhere:
    $15500
    (6)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Goal
    Welcome to Briar U!Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy!Read The Goal now for the perfect forced proximity romance! She's good at achieving her goals . . . College senior Sabrina James has her whole future planned out: graduate from college, kick...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Red Rising
    The first book in the incredible New York Times bestselling series Darrow is a Helldiver, toiling beneath the surface of Mars. As a member of the Red caste, he performs grueling labor in the belief that his sacrifice will enable future generations to one day inhabit the surface of the Red Planet. The Reds are humankind's lowest caste, living in...
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    (1)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Score
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession... Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Score now for the perfect friends with benefits romance! He knows how to score, on and off the ice... Allie Hayes is in crisis mode. With graduation looming, she still doesn't have...
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    The Ballad of Falling Dragons [Special Deluxe edition]
    The No.1 Sunday Times bestselling sensation When the Moon Hatched continues with the second book in The Moonfall Series, The Ballad of Falling Dragons… Raeve’s thirst for vengeance continues to burn, as does her love for Kaan Vaegor – a staunch beacon from a past she’s yet to face. With Rekk’s blood still fresh on her hands, she learns the...
    By Sarah A. Parker
    Hardback
    $5999
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Dylan's Pick Dylan's Pick
    Theo of Golden
    THE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLING PHENOMENON'For anything to be truly good, there must be love in it. Nothing is what it's supposed to be if love is not at the core.' One morning, a stranger arrives in the town of Golden. No one knows who he is or where he came from…His name is Theo and he's arrived there by chance –...
    By Allen Levi
    Paperback
    $2899
    Elsewhere:
    $3499
    (5)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Golden Son
    ENDER'S GAME meets THE HUNGER GAMES in this, the second in an extraordinary trilogy from an incredible new voice.'I'm still playing games. This is just the deadliest yet.' Darrow is a rebel forged by tragedy. For years he and his fellow Reds worked the mines, toiling to make the surface of Mars inhabitable. They were, they believed, mankind's last hope....
    By Pierce Brown
    Paperback
    $2400
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Voracious
    From USA Today bestselling author and TikTok sensation comes the gripping, steamy dark romance series that everyone is talking about!'Filled with TENSION, HEARTBREAK and ELECTRIC CHEMISTRY. This one will tear your heart right out of your chest before tossing it back in and sewing you up' No. 1 New York Times bestselling author Brynne Weaver'Leigh Rivers is THE QUEEN OF...
    By Leigh Rivers
    Paperback
    $2200
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • Project Hail Mary
    Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, the SUNDAY TIMES and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author of The Martian, offers a gripping new adventure in hard science fiction. With endorsement from notable figures such as Barack Obama and a slew of five-star reviews, this novel promises a thrilling and intellectually stimulating journey. Ryland Grace, a lone astronaut, finds himself on a...
    By Andy Weir
    Paperback
    $2399
    Elsewhere:
    $2400
    (4)
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • The Mistake
    Welcome to Briar U! Get ready for your newest obsession . . . Discover the addictive world of the Off-Campus series from The Queen of Hockey Romance, Elle Kennedy! Read The Mistake now for the perfect second chance romance! He's a player in more ways than one . . . College junior John Logan can get any girl he wants....
    By Elle Kennedy
    Paperback
    $2499
    Elsewhere:
    $2799
    In Stock
    Ships today
  • New Release
    On Mystic Lake
    One of the greatest storytellers of our time - Delia Owens, author of Where the Crawdads Sing Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school in England. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Left alone in the beautiful California house which was once a home, Annie...
    By Kristin Hannah
    Paperback
    $3100
    Elsewhere:
    $3800
    In Stock
    Ships today

Why buy from us?

Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!

Service & Delivery

Service & Delivery

Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.

Auckland Bookstore

Auckland Bookstore

We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.

Our Gifting Service

Our Gifting Service

Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.

General Fiction lists from the team

Explore our curated lists from our heroes to find your next read!

The Latest at Book Hero

View all