[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"$fQzs3wWUFFOTwc-NGNTz-hFvcMEjaUsfV_q4NlrFhijc":3,"$fePCoOA4fszyXCQaw8IRWaLm9ds8hjLCrOOKzbvY7JFc":67},{"author":4,"tags":51},{"author_id":5,"author_name":6,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"bio":9,"short_bio":10,"bio_jsonld":11,"slug":49,"image_url":50},1761,"Dodie Smith","D",232,"In 1948, Dodie Smith published *I Capture the Castle*, a novel that came several years after her stage work *Dear Octopus*, which had appeared in 1938. Born Dorothy Gladys Smith on 3 May 1896 in Whitefield, she was educated at St Paul's Girls' School and went on to work as a novelist, playwright, and children's writer, producing her books in English throughout her career.\n\nHer children's fiction included two works centred on the same cast of characters. *The Hundred and One Dalmatians* appeared in 1956 and was later adapted by Disney as an animated film in 1961 and then again as a live-action film in 1996. Smith returned to the same material with *The Starlight Barking*, published in 1967.\n\nSmith died on 24 November 1990 in Finchingfield and in Uttlesford. Across her career she had worked in several distinct forms — as a playwright with *Dear Octopus*, as a novelist with *I Capture the Castle*, and as a children's writer with *The Hundred and One Dalmatians* and *The Starlight Barking*. The two Disney adaptations of that 1956 book, released thirty-five years apart, mark a concrete point of reception for her work.","In 1948, Dodie Smith published *I Capture the Castle*, a novel that came several years after her stage work *Dear Octopus*, which had appeared in 1938. Born Dorothy Gladys Smith on 3 May 1896 in Whitefield, she was educated at St Paul's Girls' School and went on to work as a novelist, playwright, and children's writer, producing her books in English throughout her career.",{"@graph":12,"@context":48},[13,25],{"@id":14,"name":6,"@type":15,"sameAs":16,"birthDate":22,"deathDate":23,"description":24},"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q449085","Person",[14,17,18,19,20,21],"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodie_Smith","https://viaf.org/viaf/101974269/","https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n50013954","https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL161177A","https://d-nb.info/gnd/119438461","1896-05-03","1990-11-24","English children's novelist and playwright (1896–1990)",{"@type":26,"author":27,"headline":30,"isBasedOn":31,"mainEntity":32,"reviewedBy":33,"articleBody":9,"dateCreated":34,"dateModified":35,"additionalProperty":36,"creativeWorkStatus":47},"Article",{"name":28,"@type":29},"Editorial Team","Organization","Dodie Smith — biography",[14,17,19,20],{"@id":14},{"name":28,"@type":29},"2026-05-24T20:09:43.273874+00:00","2026-05-24T20:19:03.738742+00:00",[37,41,44],{"@type":38,"value":39,"propertyID":40},"PropertyValue","Q449085","wikidata",{"@type":38,"value":42,"propertyID":43},"1.000","factscore",{"@type":38,"value":45,"propertyID":46},"claude-sonnet-4-6-r1","draftModel","AI-drafted, auto-published","https://schema.org","dodie-smith",null,[52,56,60,64],{"tag_id":53,"tag_name":54,"tag_count":55},25,"love",8,{"tag_id":57,"tag_name":58,"tag_count":59},95,"marriage",6,{"tag_id":61,"tag_name":62,"tag_count":63},102,"religion",5,{"tag_id":65,"tag_name":66,"tag_count":63},8586,"jane-austen",{"quotes":68,"pagination":130},[69,76,82,88,94,100,106,112,118,124],{"id":70,"quote_text":71,"author_id":5,"source_id":55,"has_image":72,"author":73,"source":74,"quote_tag":75,"commentary":50},4013847,"The family, that dear octopus from whos tentacles we never quite escape, not in our innermost hearts never quite wish to.",false,{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":77,"quote_text":78,"author_id":5,"source_id":55,"has_image":72,"author":79,"source":80,"quote_tag":81,"commentary":50},4013838,"I was wandering around as usual, in my unpleasantly populated subconscious...",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":83,"quote_text":84,"author_id":5,"source_id":55,"has_image":72,"author":85,"source":86,"quote_tag":87,"commentary":50},4013819,"Our excited voices only made the castle seem more silent.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":89,"quote_text":90,"author_id":5,"source_id":55,"has_image":72,"author":91,"source":92,"quote_tag":93,"commentary":50},4013813,"How strange and beautiful it looked in the late afternoon light! I can still recapture that first glimpse - see the sheer grey stone walls and towers against the pale yellow sky, the reflected castle stretching towards us on the brimming moat, the floating patches of emerald-green water-weed.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":95,"quote_text":96,"author_id":5,"source_id":55,"has_image":72,"author":97,"source":98,"quote_tag":99,"commentary":50},4013801,"Why don't you ever fly through the windmill again? That's a sure crowd pleaser.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":101,"quote_text":102,"author_id":5,"source_id":55,"has_image":72,"author":103,"source":104,"quote_tag":105,"commentary":50},4013761,"The family – that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape, nor, in our inmost hearts, ever quite wish to.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":107,"quote_text":108,"author_id":5,"source_id":59,"has_image":72,"author":109,"source":110,"quote_tag":111,"commentary":50},2983496,"It was wonderful, of course – ham with mustard is a meal of glory.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":113,"quote_text":114,"author_id":5,"source_id":59,"has_image":72,"author":115,"source":116,"quote_tag":117,"commentary":50},2983492,"The Vicar isn’t High Church enough for confessions, and certainly most of me would have loathed to tell him or anybody else one word; but I did have a feeling that a person as wretched as I was ought to be able to get some sort of help from the Church. Then I told myself that as I never gave the Church a thought when I was feeling happy, I could hardly expect it to do anything for me when I wasn’t. You can’t get insurance money without paying in premiums.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":119,"quote_text":120,"author_id":5,"source_id":59,"has_image":72,"author":121,"source":122,"quote_tag":123,"commentary":50},2983489,"Perhaps he found 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.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"id":125,"quote_text":126,"author_id":5,"source_id":59,"has_image":72,"author":127,"source":128,"quote_tag":129,"commentary":50},2983485,"When things mean a very great deal to you, exciting anticipation just isn’t safe.",{"id":5,"author_name":6,"slug":49,"author_name_first_letter":7,"article_count":8,"image_url":50},{},[],{"currentPage":131,"totalPages":132,"totalItems":8,"itemsPerPage":133},1,24,10]