Dodie Smith Bücher

»Während ich das hier schreibe, sitze ich im Spülbecken«, lautet ein Eintrag in Cassandra Mortmains Tagebuch. Die 17-Jährige lebt mit Vater, Stiefmutter, Schwester und Bruder in einem heruntergekommenen Schloss auf dem Land und langweilt sich. Zum Zeitvertreib übt sie sich im Schreiben, und das am liebsten über ihre unkonventionelle verarmte Künstlerfamilie: den Schriftsteller-Vater, dessen erster Roman sich grandios verkauft hat, der aber seither unter einer Schreibblockade leidet und sich in Kriminalromane vergräbt, die einst glamouröse Model-Stiefmutter, die mit Vorliebe nackt durch die Landschaft spaziert, die schöne, aber meist missmutige Schwester Rose und den kleinen, aber schlauen Bruder Thomas. Dann stirbt überraschend der Schlossbesitzer, und als die Erben, zwei amerikanische Gentlemen, auftauchen, nimmt das Leben der Familie eine unerwartete Wendung.

Successfully produced in London and New York. Dear Octopus is the family from which none of its members are either able or quite willing to escape. And on the occasion of a golden wedding anniversary the children and grandchildren gather to reminisce and acquaint each other more fully with their activities. The life of this English family is shown in terms of the chatter of the youngsters, the careers and nursery memories of the middle-aged and the sense of the swift passing of the years, the sweetness of an old nurse, the minor frictions and abiding loyalty of brothers and sisters, the feast-day toast and the benevolent tyranny of the grandmother, Woven throughout the proceedings is a love story between fenny, companion to Mrs. Randolph, and Nicholas Randolph.

When Missis and Pongo's puppies go missing, the two Dalmatian parents know the scary Cruella de Vil has had something to do with it. After all, she adores furs, and the Dalmatians have such beautiful coats... The dogs' pets, Mr and Mrs Dearly, don't understand them, so it is up to Pongo and Missis to rescue their pups.

We first meet Roger and Dorothy at the unprepossessing hour of 8 a.m. when Vera wakes them with the early morning tea. We say farewell to them, less than sixteen hours later, as they turn out the lights and go to sleep. But in between there has been more excitement than most people manage to crowd into sixteen months. Roger falls in and out of love with an actress/client of his sober accountancy business in the Temple; Dorothy half yields her heart to a lonely rubber planter. One daughter quite yields hers to a philandering painter with a watchful wife, only to find it returned, battered, but unbroken. The other achieves the (momentary) desire of her life "a Rossetti drawing." Their son experiences love-at-first-sight with the new neighbor over the garden wall. And, all the time, below stairs, Cook and Vera not to mention the daily help are living and loving (occasionally breaking the china) with equal zest and joie de vivre.

A hundred and one dalmatians and more! This bumper Modern Classic edition includes the original Hundred and One Dalmatians and Dodie Smith's sequel, Starlight Barking. Cruella de Vil is enough to frighten the spots off a Dalmatian puppy. So when she steals a whole family of them, the puppies' parents, Pongo and Missus, lose no time in mounting a daring rescue mission. Will they be in time to thwart Cruella's evil scheme, or have they bitten off more than they can chew? Perfect for fans of the classic Disney film.

Celebrate World Book Day 2019 with this wonderful new picture book, based on the much-loved characters from The Hundred and One Dalmatians. When Cadpig gets lost playing hide-and-seek, she stumbles into the path of evil Cruella de Vil …But can her new furry friends help her to escape?

London's theatre world of the 1920's provides a glittering backdrop for Mouse, an eighteen-year-old Lancashire girl intent on a stage career. She tells the story herself with the utmost frankness and with an authenticity which derives from Dodie Smith's own wide experience as both actress and playwright. Mouse never felt that her nickname fully suited her; tiny she might be, but timid never. Within a day of her arrival in town she had bluffed her way into an audition at a famous theatre, infuriated its forceful young stage director, amused its kind if quite amoral actor-manager, Rex Crossway, and finally landed not a part but a toehold as a junior secretary. From then on she was involved in the engrossing affairs of the Crossway Theatre. She was also involved with her friends at the club where she lived -- Molly, a baby-faced six-footer, and elegant, ambitious LIlian who was fated to clash disastrously with Mouse, though even then they could find something to laugh at together. And later there was Zelle, rich, generous, enigmatic, and responsible for an outing to a Suffolk village pageant which proved a turning point for them all.