Caroline Blackwood was an English writer, socialite, and muse, born as Caroline Maureen Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood on 16 July 1931. She belonged to an aristocratic British family and was the eldest child of the 4th Marquess of Dufferin and Ava and Maureen Constance Guinness.

Her novels have been widely praised for their wit and intelligence. One of her notable works is an autobiography that details her wealthy yet unhappy childhood. Caroline was a significant figure in the literary world both through her journalism and her novels.

She was equally well-known for her high-profile marriages to artist Lucian Freud, composer Israel Citkowitz, and poet Robert Lowell, who famously described her as "a mermaid who dines upon the bones of her winded lovers."