Perhaps I should have let dear Dodie remain a bit of a mystery. Ms. Grove's portrayal is anything but flattering - and seems just plain mean at times. For those of us who have loved Cassandra Mortmain, perhaps it's best just to continue reading (and re-reading) The Town In Bloom, It Ends with Revelations, A Tale of Two Families, and hope one day to latch on to one of the many volumes of her autobiography. Stick with the source to continue appreciating her true voice!

Valerie Grove has written a supremely readable life of Dodie Smith. Recommended for anyone literate, and essential for Dalmatian owners (Smith wrote "The Hundred and One Dalmatians" and loved the breed).

Having come across Smith's utterly charming book,' I Capture the Castle', last year (see my review under that title!) and quickly reading everything I could get my hands on by this remarkable woman, I was curious as to how much of her fiction was thinly disguised autobiography. Grove's carefully researched bio., culled from literally thousands of pages of journals, scrapbooks, letters and Smith's own 4 volumes of autobiography answers that question (quite a bit, actually!) and provides a close-up view of not only Smith and her eccentric friends and family, but also a detailed portrait of an exciting time and place. Grove, for example, tells about Smith's own theatrical ambitions as an actress, her experieinces with various troupes in the 20's and '30's and how they led her to write about provincial theatre in 'It Ends With Revelations" and "The Town in Bloom". If you are a fan of Smith's fiction (and who among those of us who have read her is not!), I think you will find she is equally good company through this enlightening book.