George is resourceful, inventive and driven to distraction by his horrible grandmother. His medicine-making is an act of frustration transformed into creativity — a very Dahl-like response to unpleasant authority.
One of Dahl's most memorably horrible characters. She is selfish, mean, demanding, and takes pleasure in making George miserable. She meets a fitting end — though Dahl handles this with dark comic lightness rather than cruelty.
A practical, enthusiastic farmer who immediately sees the commercial possibilities of his son's invention. He provides the comic energy of the second half of the story.