Dear Dodie

by Valerie Grove

Lively and atmospheric authorised biography of playwright and novelist Dodie Smith _ author of the bestselling classics DEAR OCTOPUS, I CAPTURED THE CASTLE and THE 101 DALMATIONS - written with style and brio by THE TIMES journalist Valerie Grove.Frank and Funny, unorthodox, liberated and quintessentially English, Dodie Smith, 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. 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 detchment for us to see Dodie for ourselves. . . Full of life and zip. Joanna Trollope A successful portrait of a powerful and original woman of devastating wit and intelligence. Elspeth Barker. INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir

350 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996

Reviews

[Tamsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot tell you how many hours of joy this gave me. And it was many - I am a rather slow non-fiction reader and this book also slowed me down incredibly (I googled so. many. things. People galore, mostly). My secret Dodie soul was thrilled by so many Dodie-isms (she kept a list of authors with animal deaths/violence - and then never read them again, she and Alec often read in tandem and she wrote when they read and reread books in the margins, the dog of her heart Buzz and how she would throw back the covers in the morning to have him join her in bed), but also Grove does a good job of portraying Dodie as human - she is flawed surely, by the things Grove mentions which doesn't bother me so much (she could be vain I suppose and wanting praise for her books, she got cranky over her friends' irritating mannerisms over the years) but there are other little things I found more disturbing (Dodie refused to ever put a dog to sleep, she was 'so resolutely pro-animal, she was pro-vermin' - seriously yikes, I am glad I wasn't her neighbor). Still, despite all and because of all, she was uniquely Dodie. I was glad to know her a little better through Grove's biography.

Julian Barnes, a friend and literary executor of Dodie's, says of her writing and Dodie: 'significant but minor.' Which I think is true and also unfortunate. Dodie probably would be piiiiiisssed to hear him say that, despite everything. I think though, she would also be incredibly pleased by her legacy (although I would agree with her, it should be greater). Reading I Capture the Castle for the first time in 2011 was a revelation to me - I felt Dodie and her writing was incredibly modern in 2011, despite being published in '48. It shocked me she had written 101 Dalmatians - and I encourage anyone who is a dog lover to read it - it's not the Disney movie. It's so much better. I still have yet to read one of her plays, but reading this biography made me want to reread everything and to buy her plays next. Looking forward to still having more Dodie in my life, even though she is gone.

[John Anthony · Rating 4 out of 5]

I knew little about Dodie Smith apart from the fact that she wrote "I Capture the Castle" which I enjoyed reading years ago (and saw the film based on it, more recently). I think I was also aware that she'd written 101 Dalmatians. "Dear Dodie..." was therefore a bit of an eye opener.

Dodie was in her day one of the most successful playwrights, working with many legendary stars of the theatre world 1930s onwards, and subsequently Hollywood. Isherwood was a particularly close friend and dedicated one of his novels to her and her husband Alec; Huxley, Auden, Spender and Noel Coward also feature. Latterly, she became friends with Julian Barnes who she appointed her literary executor.

A quirky character, diminutive of stature but certainly not lacking in presence, her long life is honestly observed by Valerie Groves and the result is well worth reading.

[Jack Bates · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this very much. I didn't know anything at all about Dodie Smith really, but that has now been remedied. Particularly good when discussing British theatre between the wars, which is a generally neglected period, I feel. Odd to think how famous she was for writing plays and how no one would ever think that her most important work, now.

Although the biographies of people who live a long time are apt to be melancholy in a particular way.

[Tony Lawrence]

I picked this copy up in Suffolk, which is appropriate with Dodie Smith's strong associations with the area; I Capture the Castle set in Wingfield Castle, and her and husband Alec lived for a long time in Finchingfield on the Essex/Suffolk border. Also the book is signed by the author and dedicated to someone's Aunt 'Dodie'. The last coincidence was that Dorothy Gladys Smith was born in Whitefield, Lancashire where my DW went to school!

As biographies go this was rich on detail, helped no doubt by the million-plus words in Dodie's journals. Although I can imagine trawling through all her musings, letters and plays was quite a chore! Her early successes were as a playwright, but she also had great successes with 'I Capture...' and 101 Dalmatians, unusual to write such famous and lasting works in different styles and genres, although probably more common nowadays. I've read both and was fascinated to read about this little unpretty Edwardian lady and her unusual life story.

[Nicola Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couldn't read it fast enough and, two weeks later, I still miss it.

[Simon Edge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb. Exactly as biography should be done.

[Stuart · Rating 4 out of 5]

We work in the dark...we do what we can...the rest is madness and art

She learned early to relish melancholy feelings

In the library she had a semi mystical experience

[Val Robson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took me forever to get through. I just kept thinking I might get into it and find an interesting section but I didn't. Full marks to Valerie Grove on her research but it felt like every detail, no matter how trivial, of Dodie Smith's life went into this which made for very dull reading. I don't really like this style of biography which is predominately quotes from writings by or about the subject and hundreds of names of people I've never heard of. A brief biography list of all mentioned would have been useful but I suspect that might have run to as many pages as the book as there were so many.

I'd only heard of Dodie Smith's '101 Dalmatians' work so expected quite a lot about that but it was hardly mentioned. She was certainly an interesting character and I'm sure Hollywood could do a similar movie to 'Saving Mr Banks' on the life of PL Travers.

'Dear Dodie' isn't available on Kindle which is a shame as I constantly got distracted Googling people who I realised were significant in their time but I wasn't familiar with. This would have been a lot easier on my Kindle. I bought this from a charity sale and that is where it is going back.

[Nikki Copleston · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this life of Dodie Smith very readable, and I learnt so much about a writer who is known now mainly for her novels "I capture the castle" and "The Hundred and One Dalmatians". Valerie Grove is sympathetic but objective, and paints a comprehensive portrait of a woman who enjoyed early success as a playwright with "Dear Octopus". Moving to the States for the sake of her conscientious objector husband Alec, she missed out on so much, and although her public forgave her for leaving England and welcomed her back, she never really made up the ground she'd lost. Her connections were many and various, and I had no idea she was such a friend and mentor to Christopher Isherwood and, in later life, to Julian Barnes (who is one of her literary executors).

This excellent biography puts her most famous works in context, and will interest not only those fans of her coming-of-age "I capture the castle" but also those readers curious about a life that began while Victoria was still Queen and ended in November 1990, encompassing two world wars, the evolution of modern theatre and literature. Entertaining and informative.

[Rachel Glass · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love a literary biography, and 'I Capture the Castle' is one of my very favourite books. Having read some of Dodie Smith's other, lesser-known novels, I found the story of her early life on stage very familiar. This was an enjoyable read for me - another review complained about the constant quotations, but I thought this was natural given how much Smith wrote about herself in journals and letters, and I felt that the quotations were incorporated really naturally into the text.

Smith herself comes across quite clearly in this biography, with all her quirks and humour and selfishness. You really get the impression of her as an infuriating yet charming person who never quite achieved the success she hoped to. I don't think I had ever realised that her main focus and interest was theatre and play writing, as she is not most known for that now.

If you've not read any of her work it's probably not really of interest, but I found it fascinating.

[Chris Wimlett · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and very readable biography.

[Skyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved Dodie as a writer and now I find her deeply lovable as a person.

[Lydia St Giles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dodie Smith wrote “The One Hundred and One Dalmatians”, a story which continues to please children (and their parents) long after its publication in 1956. But her long life - she died at 94 - is worth examining for so much more.
A confident personality, thanks in part to a supportive extended family, she went on the stage as an actress in touring productions. Although ill-paid and unadmired in this work, she persevered. On this period of her working life, Dodie said, “I could always talk myself into a job and act myself out of it.”
The experience was fruitful once she took up her pen to write for the theatre, seeing her first play to be produced , “Autumn Crocus”, a success. However, there was a quite different phase which intervened before her continued success as a dramatist. Recognising her failure as an actress, Dodie had taken a job at Heal’s, the design emporium in central London. Here she did succeed, leading a section of three staff. (The rave reviews of her first play were headlined “Shop-girl writes play.”)
Her love-life up till then had not been rewarding. At Heal’s she met a young man with whom she had a chaste relationship, not returning his feelings for her. Years later, he wrote to her saying that her success had not surprised him, as she had “always combined being sympathetic with complete unscrupulousness”.
This attitude is obvious in her determination to become the mistress of the boss - Ambrose Heal. She succeeded in this and reaped considerable financial benefit from the affair. But it was at Heal’s that she met the man who became her husband, Alec Beesley, and who arrived with the papers bearing the enthusiastic reviews for “Autumn Crocus”. In the long years together, he contentedly played this supportive role, making it possible for her to write while he took care of domestic and administrative matters.
After war broke out in 1939, the couple took refuge in the USA, where they met such literary figures as Christopher Isherwood and Aldous Huxley. These absorbing and long-lasting friendships provide a lot of the interest in this biography. It was in the States that Dodie once more took up the manuscript of a novel which has become a classic - “I Capture the Castle”. The advance for the novel of 5,000 dollars, plus a bigger sum from a book club, would keep the couple solvent for several years. The return to England did not take place as soon as war was over. Later she was to admit to herself that the years in the States had been an error of judgment, her “lost years”.
A riveting personality, a woman ahead of her times, Dodie Smith described by Valerie Grove is a character who made me laugh out loud often while reading.

[N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Valerie Grove presents a detailed and readable account of shopgirl-turned-playwright Dodie Smith, who is most famous for writing The Hundred and One Dalmatians, based on her own experiences as a Dalmatian-owner.

I must admit, I have a distinct weakness for stories about quirky women growing up between the World Wars (see also: Anaïs Nin), so I was predisposed to enjoy the lively first part of this book, with its descriptions of penniless-yet-spirited Dodie trying to make it as an actress (and then playwright) during the 1920s/30s.

For Christopher Isherwood fans (and I am one), the account of his enduring friendship with Dodie and her husband Alec also provides a highlight.

Valerie Grove does an excellent job of distilling Dodie's lengthy diaries and letters (which must have amounted to millions of words) into an engaging narrative. Unfortunately, the book still feels too long to support Dodie's modest life story. (I will candidly admit to not being a particular fan of biographies, but if you have more patience for the story form, you may well like Dear Dodie more than I did.)

Furthermore, Dodie is not always the most likeable of subjects. Her endless petulance at missing out on the "chance for copy" during wartime Britain in the 1940s (Alec was a conscientious objector, so the two of them moved to America so that he could avoid the draft) is distasteful, as is her carelessness with money. (Let's just say that it doesn't seem like a great tragedy when Dodie and Alec are forced to -- *gasp* -- sell their Rolls Royce.)

However, Dodie's vibrancy outweighs her flaws, and Dear Dodie is an entertaining, if over-long read. Recommended if you like: dogs; quirky women; or between-the-wars Britain.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you're a fan of Dodie Smith, author of I Capture the Castle and One Hundred and One Dalmatians, then you'll almost certainly enjoy Valerie Grove's biography; even if you're not but you enjoy literary biography, you still may be interested in Grove's lively portrayal of the witty and direct writer.

Smith's plays (the most famous of which is Dear Octopus) were widely acclaimed in the 1930's, but after she spent the WWII years in America (so that her husband, Alec Beesley, could avoid military service), she lost touch with British audiences and turned to other outlets for her writing talent, producing several novels for children and for adults as well as four volumes of autobiography. Grove succeeds in capturing Dodie's direct, witty, sometimes brutally honest personality, producing an engaging portrait of her life and times.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dodie Smith was born in 1896 and died in 1990. During her lifetime the world when through enormous changes and numerous wars. This biography not only relates Dodie s life, but is also a record of those years, containing so much about the changing society, culture, values and recalling an unknown (to me at any rate) theatrical age.[return][return]She was the author of two classics - I Capture the Castle and The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Those are the two works that I knew before reading this book. She was also an acclaimed playwright and her plays receiving most praise were Autumn Crocus and Dear Octopus. This book has triggered my interest in reading these plays and more of Dodie s books. She wrote millions of words, mostly about herself - in her journals and five volumes of autobiography. She simply loved writing. But at times she became depressed.[return][return]One touching note - Dodie s last Dalmatian, Charley, slept on the floor by her side on guard, as it were, during her final days. Dodie left

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Two stars since I skimmed the second half, having mostly lost interest except for locating the sections on her two most famous works. Dodie led a very interesting life, but this is exhaustively wordy covering every last detail. Evidently, the main source for this is Dodie's journal/autobiography that covers five volumes. In need of cropping, among other things, this could have left out many of the numerous "notable" people mentioned, having not heard of most of them. Gratifying to read, she and her husband Alec, who seemed like an especially nice person, had a very happy, long marriage.

[Sarah A · Rating 3 out of 5]

This biography contains some wonderful insights into the person of Dodie Smith, a renowned writer.
From her very interesting childhood through her adulthood, fame, successes and struggles until her death, a great description of her life and life's works.

[Anna Ciddor · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always find it interesting, as an author, to read biographies of other authors. However, I found this one a bit disappointing as Dodie's was not a character I could relate to.