Read I Capture the Castle with Jo’s Book Nook

Jan 04, 2010

Posted by: John Admin

LeakyLounge

Our non-Harry Potter book club, Jo’s Book Nook, has chosen to read Dodie Smith’s timeless novel I Capture the Castle for the month of January. Jo’s Book Nook is open to all MyLeaky members, providing the opportunity to discuss the chosen novel with others who are discovering or rediscovering it at the same time. This month, there is a quiz, a section to post your favourite quotations, a thread to crack any Britishisms you didn’t understand and more.

As for the novel itself, Smith – also the author of 101 Dalmatians – follows the Mortmain family’s life in a castle that is falling to pieces. The father is faced with crippling writer’s block, while his new artist’s model wife, Topaz, is as eccentric as they come. I Capture the Castle is set in the 1930s and told from the perspective of the younger daughter, Cassandra, who writes her family’s adventures, struggles with money and battles with love down in her treasured diary. J.K. Rowling herself has said that Cassandra “[is] one of the most charismatic narrators I’ve ever met.”

Happy reading!





The Leaky Cauldron is not associated with J.K. Rowling, Warner Bros., or any of the individuals or companies associated with producing and publishing Harry Potter books and films.