Dorothy 'Dodie' Smith was born in 1896 in Derbyshire and was one of the most successful dramatists of her generation. During the 1940s she lived in the USA and it was homesickness for England that inspired her classic novel I Capture the Castle (1948). It was an immediate success and was also adapted for the stage in the 1950s as well as becoming a successful film in 2003. Dodie Smith is also the author of the much-loved book The Hundred and One Dalmatians, which has famously been twice filmed by Disney. Dodie Smith died in 1990.