Caroline Blackwood

Caroline Blackwood was born with a silver spoon, being an heiress to the Guinness brewery fortune. She was a descendant of the Hamiltons and Blackwoods, two old Scottish families from Ulster. Her father, Basil, was the Marquess of Dufferin and Ava, and her mother, Maureen, was a Marchioness from the Golden Guinness Girls.

Caroline was not just an heiress but also a well-known figure in the literary world. She was a writer and journalist, and the eldest child of The 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and the brewery heiress Maureen Guinness. Her novels are known for their wit and intelligence, and one in particular is scathingly autobiographical, describing her unhappy childhood. She was born into an Anglo-Irish aristocratic family from Ulster at 4 Hans Crescent in Knightsbridge, her parents' London home. Caroline's education was described as "scanty," having attended various schools such as Rockport School in County Down and Downham in Essex, followed by a finishing school in Oxford. She was presented as a debutante in 1949 at a ball held at Londonderry House.