Great Granny Webster by Caroline Blackwood – #NovNov26

My first book for this year’s Novellas in November is by an author I tried for the first time last year, when I read and enjoyed The Stepdaughter. I’d heard that Great Granny Webster, which was shortlisted for the 1977 Booker Prize, is considered her best book, so I was looking forward to reading it. Great Granny Webster draws on Blackwood’s own memories and experiences and feels very like a memoir; in fact, the poet Philip Larkin, one of the Booker Prize judges, apparently voted against her, saying that the book was “autobiography, not fiction” – which I think was a bit unfair as I’m sure you could say the same about a lot of novels. The book begins in 1947 with our fourteen-year-old narrator, who is recovering from surgery, being sent to stay with Great Granny Webster so she can benefit from the sea air. However, although Great Granny Webster lives only minutes away from Brighton with its beach and pier, the narrator experiences very little of the sea air because Great Granny…

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