'Original, artful and elegant... To read her for the first time is a singular experience' Hilary Mantel

'Cruel genius' Maggie Nelson

Sabine Ponsonby presides over her large household with despotic force, rivalled only by her imperious daughter, Hetta. As her needling cruelties cause one governess after another to flee, the family's younger generation begins to stir in revolt, and the seeds for a reckoning are sown.

Written in Ivy Compton-Burnett's iconic style, where dialogue seethes with veiled insults and manipulations, Daughters and Sons is an acidic comedy of cold deceptions, mistaken identities and family struggles for dominance.