Or even possibly a Trunchball one?
Since I was a kid, I've been fascinated by Mrs Wormwood in Matilda, as if my mind couldn't conceive of such a mother. My own mother was lovely.
Now I'm older I know there are mothers who are equally as unloving and abusive. I still want to know what makes her tick.
I wonder if she had equally disapproving parents who called her stupid, therefore causing her to become fixated on her appearance.
Then there's the relationship with Harry, is it abusive? In the first film version there's the idea that she is unfaithful, can't remember this in the book. Or is it just my own resistance to accept a truly horrible, selfish mother figure?