Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith

(Paperback)

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Description

An engrossing and vivid biography of Dodie Smith, author of The Hundred and One Dalmations and I Capture the Castle. Frank and funny, unorthodox, liberated and quintessentially English, Dodie Smith, playwright and novelist, was the author of those immortal classics, The Hundred and One Dalmations and I Capture the Castle. One of the most successful dramatists of her generation, she spent the war years in America, befriended Christopher Isherwood and, through Walt Disney's film, became a household name.

Reviews

I have nothing but praise for this engrossing book, which on the one hand recreates a recent, but forgotten theatrical age, and on the other should introduce Dodie to a host of new readers. * Literary Review *
Beautifully written, warm and lively, with enough detachment for us to see Dodie for ourselves-Full of life and zip. * Joanna Trollope *
Valerie Grove's vivid biography is a brilliant feat of retrieval - nobody will be glad to finish this book. * Sunday Times *
Valerie Grove writes about Dodie with wit and discernment. This is a hugely enjoyable book. * Mail on Sunday *
A successful portrait of a powerful and original woman of devastating wit and intelligence. * Independent on Sunday *

Author Bio

Valerie Grove is a journalist and interviewer with a weekly column in The Times. She was born in South Shields and educated at Girton College, Cambridge. She joined the London Evening Standard in 1968, becoming a journalist and later its literary editor. Her first book, Where I Was Young, was published in 1976 and her second, The Compleat Woman, in 1987. She is married to journalist Trevor Grove and has four children. She lives in North London.