Who are the worst fathers in literature? Readers pick their candidates

Literature has long portrayed messed-up families. As poet Philip Larkin famously wrote , “They fuck you up, your mum and dad. / They may not mean to, but they do.”

Of course, complex characters – neither wholly good nor bad – are the best sort. Author Andrew O'Hagan has spoken eloquently about striving to humanise even his most unpleasant creations, to fully amplify a novel.

Still, some characters are awfully hard to like. My least favourite dad might be Shug Bain, a cruel, violent man who abandons his wife and kids in Douglas Stuart’s Booker Prize-winning novel . Shug is appalled by his son Shuggie’s feminine mannerisms. “Look how twisted you’ve made him,” he tells his wife.

Here are our readers’ picks.

I Capture the Castle , Dodie Smith

Perhaps the worst parent is not a