I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith

“I have found that sitting in a place where you have never sat before can be inspiring. I wrote my very best poem while sitting on the hen-house.”

Dodie Smith was born in 1896 in Lancashire, England.  She wrote 9 novels, 11 plays, some autobiographical works and two screenplays.  She may not be the most familiar name in your experience of British authors, but, she was, in fact one of the most successful and well-known playwrights of her generation. 

Growing up in a family of people who were great lovers of theatre, Dodie studied at the Academy of Dramatic Art with acting as a possible career but went on to concentrate on what became a very successful writing career. While her plays may not have necessarily remained contemporary favorites, two of her novels have: I Capture the Castle (1948) and The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956).

“Cruel blows of fate call for extreme kindness in the family circle.”

I Capture the Castle was Dodie Smith’s first novel.  She wrote it in California in the 1940s where she and her husband, Alec  Beesley had moved after his stance as a conscientious objector in Britain during WWII.  She was homesick for England and wrote largely to remember a happier time and place. The first British edition published in 1948 by the Heinemann publishing house in London.

“Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression.”

The novel became an immediate hit and is still extremely popular - being included at  #82 in the BBC survey, The Big Read in 2003.

I Capture The Castle follows the poor, highly eccentric but genteel Mortmain family and takes place in the areas of Suffolk and in London during 1930s England.  The novel spans April to October in a single year with seventeen year old Cassandra Mortmain as first-person narrator.  It’s essentially a coming-of-age story for Cassandra and follows her inner transformation from girlhood to becoming a young woman.

The characters in this novel are a colorful and memorable collection and make this an enjoyable read for any age. There is a timelessness to how Dodie Smith has drawn each one that somehow make them resemble someone you know or would like to know.

 “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”

We will all be able to share our thoughts and ideas on this work as we meet for a Winter Book Breakfast at 10am on Saturday, January 27th, 2024 to discuss I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith.