Dodie Smith author page

Dodie Smith biography

Dodie Smith was an English novelist and playwright. She attended the Royal Academy of Art and began her career as an actress before turning to writing. Smith’s first play, Autumn Crocus, was produced in 1931 and achieved commercial success. She wrote several other plays, including Call It a Day (1935), which ran for 509 performances in London’s West End.

Smith is best known for her children’s novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians, published in 1956 by Heinemann. The book introduced the characters Pongo and Missis and was later adapted into an animated film by Walt Disney in 1961. She also wrote a sequel, The Starlight Barking, published in 1967.

Her first novel, I Capture the Castle, was published in 1948 and has since become a classic of young adult literature. The novel was adapted for radio, stage, and film. Smith’s other works include The Town in Bloom (1965), It Ends with Revelations (1970), and A Tale of Two Families (1978).

Dodie Smith’s The Hundred and One Dalmatians was awarded the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1973.