Great Granny Webster

Caroline Blackwood’s macabre and wickedly funny portrait of a monstrous, iron-willed dowager presiding over her long-suffering family

Great Granny Webster, as she sat silent and impassive in her straight-backed hard Victorian gothic chair, was the embodiment of everything that was ‘correct’ in the traditions of her aristocratic family. But the insidious effect of this terrible old woman upon her daughter was far-reaching.

Shortlisted: The Booker Prize 1977
Published by: Duckworth
Publication date: 1 January 1977