Virago signs ‘skin-crawling’ novel in three-book deal from the late Caroline Blackwood

Virago Modern Classics has signed The Fate of Mary Rose, a “skin-crawling” novel about maternal obsession, in a three-book deal from the late Caroline Blackwood.

Editorial director Olivia Barker acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in a three-book deal from Jennifer Bernstein at the Wylie Agency. The Fate of Mary Rose will be published in October 2024 with Great Granny Webster and Corrigan to follow in early 2026. 

“Simmering with female rage and repressed violence,” The Fate of Mary Rose follows one family falling apart after a 10-year-old girl is abducted from their village in Kent. The synopsis continues: “As the community descends into hysteria and voyeuristic obsession, Rowan Anderson becomes increasingly disturbed by his wife’s macabre fixation on saving their sickly daughter, Mary Rose, from the same fate – and perhaps from Rowan himself.”

Blackwood, born in 1931, was famous for her “dramatically bohemian life”, which included marriages to painter Lucien Freud, composer Israel Citkowitz and poet Robert Lowell. 

Barber said: “An exquisitely black-hearted gem of book, Blackwood’s voice wormed its way under my skin from the first line. Beneath her taut prose, the novels vibrate with gothic excess – she is a master of using black comedy to reveal the horror that lurks under the surface of women’s lives. Virginia Feito has described her as ‘one of the greatest, darkest writers who ever lived’ and I couldn’t agree more – anyone who loves Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson will discover a new favourite author in Caroline Blackwood.”