Dear Dodie: The Life of Dodie Smith

Description

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.

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.

"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." -- Antonia Fraser * 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." -- John Carey * Sunday Times * "Valerie Grove writes about Dodie with wit and discernment. This is a hugely enjoyable book." -- John Mortimer * Mail on Sunday * "A successful portrait of a powerful and original woman of devastating wit and intelligence." -- Elspeth Barker * Independent on Sunday *