I CAPTURE THE CASTLE

I've just this coffee-break finished re-reading one of my all-time favourite books - 'I Capture the Castle' by Dodie Smith (who also wrote a quite different book - '101 Dalmatians').  This must be at least the tenth reading over the past 60 or so years, but over the last three days I have spent far too many extended coffee breaks reading it, but it's one of those books that draws you in and carries you along.


In the 1950s this was a much-loved book shared by my mother and myself, and we would re-read it and discuss it, and shared our favourite parts, so the book means even more to me than the lovely story, it brings memories of happy moments with my mother that helped us through difficult times.

A first line in a book is so important - think of Jane Austen's 'It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife' in Pride and Prejudice.  This book's first line is 'I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.'  


The 2003 DVD of the book presents the story very well -  except for a fashion anachronism towards the end that always irritates me.  I went to look out our copy ..... but I think it must have got lost in our last home move.  So I was on to Amazon straight away and it was only £2.89, I couldn't believe it.

I don't mind waiting to see it because the book has such an atmosphere, and is written so beautifully, that I always like to 'soak' in the memory of it for a while before watching the DVD again, if you can understand what I mean.  If you haven't read it yet, do try it.