Forgotten novelist and member of the Guinness dynasty Caroline Blackwood is ripe for rediscovery
The reissue of The Fate of Mary Rose is a timely reminder of a writer whose work remains gimlet-eyed and masterful
Largely forgotten: Caroline Blackwood was a daughter of one of the Guinness Girls. Photo via Getty Images
“She was dead even before I became aware of her existence,” begins Caroline Blackwood’s macabre, disturbing, yet richly intricate short novel, peopled with a disagreeable cast of characters. Even the innocent child in the title, Mary Rose, is difficult to like.
This strikingly original novel, reissued by Virago, tells of Cressida, a chilly woman trapped by her attempt to create the perfect upbringing for her daughter in a picture-postcard Kent village. But she’s not the only prisoner. Her daughter, too, is held captive — quite literally — by the mother’s obsessive behaviour.
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