I Capture the Castle
Dodie Smith
Strictly speaking, this book re-made me a bookworm. I read it first only 15 years ago, when the release of the film version brought it to my attention. It sounded perfect – an eccentric, impoverished family living in a decaying castle whose 1930's life is recorded in a dreamy, bookish teenage girl’s diary? How had I missed this in my youth? SIGN ME UP. And it was perfect. I read, at the age of 28, as if I were a child again; in a headlong rush, with nothing else existing except the Mortmains and Cassandra’s eggs for tea. It was, and remains, the most glorious and restorative treat.