Over the four books, Sapphy and Conor go deeper and farther into Ingo, becoming involved with Mer politics, making friends and enemies, finding that the world underwater is more beautiful and dangerous than they could imagine. Initially, travelling between worlds feels “like a knife”, then it becomes easier soon, Sapphy can breathe on her own underwater, not needing to hold Faro’s wrist to stay oxygenated. Sapphy and Conor can travel in Ingo, they learn, because they have Mer blood. Living in a cottage by the coast, Conor and Sapphy meet Elvira and Faro, two young Mer – never mermaids – before they discover that they, too, can dive into the lush underwater world the Mer inhabit, where seals are guardians, sharks do their duty, and, if you listen hard enough, it might be possible to talk to dolphins. Published between 20, the series features the adventures of protagonist Sapphire and her brother Conor, whose father mysteriously disappears at the start of the first book. They’re children’s books by the acclaimed late British poet and novelist Helen Dunmore, set in the rocky cliffs and azure sea of Cornwall in the southern part of Great Britain. The Ingo series has four books – Ingo, The Tide Knot, The Deep, and The Crossing of Ingo, with a standalone addition, Stormswept, published later with different characters. I’m rereading these children’s books in the sticky Auckland summer, diving into their ocean of adventure where it’s possible to breathe underwater and you can ride ocean currents like a rollercoaster. The spines of Helen Dunmore’s Ingo books, a collection of differently sized editions, make clear lines of blue and purple and green.

Shanti Mathias explores what the quartet of underwater adventure novels meant to her childhood self, and what they mean to her now.

Ingo helen dunmore series