Dorothy Gladys 'Dodie' Smith was born in 1896 in Lancashire and was one of the most successful female dramatists of her generation. Her first novel, I Capture the Castle, written when she lived in America during the 1940's, marked her crossover debut from playwright to novelist. The novel became an immediate success and was produced as a play in 1954. She has written numerous other novels but is best known today for The Hundred and One Dalmatians, a story for younger readers grown out of her life-long love of the spotty dog and inspired by her own experiences. The Hundred and One Dalmatians became the basis of two Disney Films. She lived in a cottage with her husband and many pets, in the Essex countryside that she loved, until her death in 1990, aged 94.
