Great Granny Webster

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