Great Granny Webster : The rediscovered dark masterpiece shortlisted for the Booker Prize - Caroline Blackwood
Caroline Blackwood
- Pages · 160 pages
- Publication Date · 06/08/2026
- Genre · Classic fiction (pre c 1945)
CAROLINE BLACKWOOD'S MASTERPIECE, SHORTLISTED FOR THE 1977 BOOKER PRIZE*A New Yorker summer reading pick of 2026*'Full of genuine black humour' LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS'A masterpiece . . . her humour is as wicked as it is mordant' JOHN BANVILLE
'Caroline Blackwood sits firmly alongside the greats like Shirley Jackson and Patricia Highsmith' ARAMINTA HALLIn her gloomy mausoleum of a home, the terrifying matriarch Great Granny Webster spends her days sitting bolt upright in a Victorian chair, entirely alone except for her one-eyed maid - and her orphaned great-granddaughter, sent to stay for the sea air. She presides over three generations of ill-fated women, and a twisted family history which spools back through hedonistic 20s London to a crumbling aristocratic pile where two children are kept silently hidden in a distant wing. This macabre, viciously funny, partly autobiographical novel cuts to the bone of a dysfunctional dynasty, and captures Blackwood at her pitch-black best. 'Idiosyncratic, dark and extremely funny' LUCY SCHOLES'A unique literary experience' PHILIP LARKIN
'As gripping as a whodunit' TLS
'Shocking, brilliant, and wickedly funny, Great Granny Webster is Caroline Blackwood's best book' JONATHAN RABAN
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