The great oak doors parted with a loud creak and in rushed my parents’ voices. Startled, I glanced at the print of the merman, with his lion’s face and devil’s horns, his fishtail and webbed fins. I shut Aldrovandi’s Monstrorum Historia. I needed somewhere to hide in the vast library, with its floor-to-ceiling shelving, its … Continue reading Be Perfectly Transported into the Past: Read an Extract from The Naturalist of Amsterdam by Melissa Ashley