Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle is one of those books which I somehow missed out on reading while growing up, and I've yet to remedy that omission. Harriet read it recently (aged 13) and loved it, and she says it took a few chapters for her to connect with the characters but then she was off, and its vivid images are lingering ones.
It has the famous opening line, "I write this sitting in the kitchen sink", and Joanna Trollope says of it, "I know of few novels that inspire as much fierce lifelong affection in their readers." It does seem to be a book which having become a favourite, remains a favourite; its author was utterly delighted when Ralph Vaughan Williams named it as his book of the year in 1949, and her biographer, Valerie Grove [I enjoyed her book, Dear Dodie], says she has "never met a reader who wanted the story to end".
Given what's on the cover of this Vintage Classics edition, it's time I did read the book, but even without floral adornments of a superior kind, the story of Cassandra Mortmain and her impoverished, bohemian family living in a crumbling castle is a thoroughly appealing one.
Have you read it?
