Do we like them?

Do we like Mrs. Twit?

A character from The Twits (1980)

Our score: 2 out of 10. No. She's funny on the page, but she is cruel to animals and to her husband and shows no remorse, so we wouldn't back her.

Mrs. Twit is one half of the horrible married couple in Roald Dahl's short children's book The Twits, illustrated by Quentin Blake. The Twits are dirty, smelly and unpleasant, and they spend their time playing mean tricks on each other and tormenting the creatures around them. Mrs. Twit has a glass eye and a sour temper.

Dahl makes the point that ugly thoughts make an ugly face, and Mrs. Twit shows it. She may once have been pretty, but a lifetime of nasty thinking has ruined her looks. Her pranks on Mr. Twit are inventive, and her husband is no better, which is much of the book's dark humour. But she is also cruel to animals, and that is why she scores so low.

Her cruelty catches up with her. She and her husband keep captive monkeys and birds, and the animals eventually band together and turn the tables on the Twits. It's a satisfying comeuppance for a character who never showed a flicker of kindness.