Local poet brings ancient Pembrokeshire folktale to life in first self-published, crowdfunded book.
On the Quayside in a small Pembrokeshire fishing village stands a beautiful wooden statue of ‘Peregrine’s Mermaid’ and this ancient legend has now been captured in the words of a lyrical poem for all ages.
Haven-based writer Mark Bond first learned of the story at the beginning of 2025 and it inspired some poetry during the summer with the eventual book published this week.
Peregrine and the Mermaid tells of a local fishman making an unexpected catch one day, followed by an even more unexpected choice which results in a promise made between land and sea.
The book – an epic poem and Mark’s first published work is a result of a successful Crowdfunder campaign he started in April of this year. Within 6 weeks, sufficient funds were raised for Mark to cover the costs of working with a celebrated illustrator and ensure successful self-publishing at the end.
“It was just another of those pipe-dreams until I made the decision to launch the Crowdfunder” said Mark, “There were various ways that people could support the project – from pre-ordering their copy of the book, buying the audiobook, purchasing limited edition artwork from the pages of the book to sponsoring the cover itself! As ever, when you manage to capture the imagination and belief of Pembrokeshire people, they always turn out and support one of their own. I have a wonderful network of people around me.”
“You only need to do a small amount of research to realise how incredibly hard and demoralising it is to get a book deal via the more traditional routes”, said Mark “The way I went about it meant I could keep control of many elements that I’d have otherwise had to pass up. This was the steepest learning curve but it means more now it’s done…and now I don’t need to tell so many people about the book because they’ve been on the journey with me since the beginning!”.
Mark’s book is available for purchase online at www.peregrineandthemermaid.com and will soon be on the shelves of selected local bookshops.
Pictured: The book - Peregrine and the Mermaid.