Cassie McCullagh

It was written in French.

And in America, it's been called The Perfect Nanny, which is a bit creepy.

So it's an inversion of what you'd expect the situation to be in a family like that in Paris at this time right now.

In what way was she strange?

Gleaning.

Sandra, you and I have been listening and looking at each other, raising our eyebrows about this book.

Not one for Mother's Day.

So, Lullaby It's Called, at least in Australia, the author is Leila Slimani and it has won the Prix Goncourt and it's international bestseller if you've got the stamina for it.

And in a novel by Imogen Hermes Gowar, which is set in 1785, a merchant and a trader named Jonah Hancock gets his hands on a mermaid.

The book is called The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock.

So I can only presume, Kate Evans and Sandra Lee Price, that he meets a mermaid, answers her siren call and lives happily ever after.

A kind of sideshow attraction.

So you're describing for me a monkey's head on a fish's body.

How big is it?

I'd say about as big as a Labrador or something like that, like a large fish.

Okay, and it's suspended in alcohol or something?

It's mummified.

Can I ask what the relationship between the courtesan and Jonah Hancock is?

I mean, is there one?

Is there a relationship between them?