Dodie Smith
Dodie Smith
Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smithwas an English children's novelist and playwright, known best for the novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Other works include I Capture the Castle, and The Starlight Barking. The Hundred and One Dalmatians was adapted into a 1961 Disney animated movie version. Her novel I Capture the Castle was adapted into a 2003 movie version. I Capture the Castle was voted number 82 as "one of the nation's 100 best-loved novels" by the British public as part of...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionDramatist
Date of Birth3 May 1896
We were restless for ages...After a while I heard an owl hooting and calmed myself by thinking of it flying over the dark fields – and then I remembered it would be pouncing on mice. I love owls, but I wish God had made them vegetarian.
I have noticed that rooms which are extra clean feel extra cold
And at last father flung the rug off as if it were hampering him and strode over to the table saying, 'cocoa, cocoa!'-- it might have been the most magnificent drink in the world; which, personally, I think it is.
It's odd how different a house feels when one is alone in it. It makes it easier to think rather private thoughts...
... for I know I shall be interrupted-- I shall want to be, really, because life is too exciting to sit still for long.
Oh, it is wonderful to wake up in the morning with things to look forward to!
If you love people, you take them on trust.
Still, looking through the old volumes was soothing, because thinking of the past made the present seem a little less real.
I know all about the facts of life, and I don't think much of them.
Americans do seem to say things which make the English notice England.
He stood staring into the wood for a minute, then said: "What is it about the English countryside — why is the beauty so much more than visual? Why does it touch one so?" He sounded faintly sad. Perhaps he finds beauty saddening — I do myself sometimes. Once when I was quite little I asked father why this was and he explained that it was due to our knowledge of beauty's evanescence, which reminds us that we ourselves shall die. Then he said I was probably too young to understand him; but I understood perfectly.
Only the margin left to write on now. I love you, I love you, I love you.
...I have noticed that when things happen in one's imaginings, they never happen in one's life, so I am curbing myself.
Topaz was wonderfully patient - but sometimes I wonder if it is not only patience, but also a faint resemblance to cows.