> Skip to content
Play sample
  • Published: 23 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9780241618059
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 544
  • RRP: $24.00

I Capture the Castle

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation





Rebel Voices: Disruptive Stories from Trailblazing Women - a new Puffin Classics collection, celebrating International Women's Day 2023

Seventeen-year-old Cassandra Mortmain and her family live in a beautiful, ramshackle castle - but sadly that's not quite as exciting as it sounds when you're having to use the barn door as a kitchen table, and new clothes are literally made out of old curtains . . .

Determined to forge her own path, Cassandra practices her writing skills by keeping a diary - observing the eccentric comings and goings of her beloved-but exasperating family, and pondering what life may have in store for her. But things are about to get delightfully more dramatic with the arrival of two glamorous Americans - and soon the Mortmain's lives will never be the same again.

  • Published: 23 May 2023
  • ISBN: 9780241618059
  • Imprint: Penguin
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 544
  • RRP: $24.00

Also by Dodie Smith

See all

Praise for I Capture the Castle

The appeal of the book is that of a time of innocence . . . When a girl of 17 could still be all but untouched by sexuality. At the same time it captures the pangs of growing up and unrequited first love.

Observer

A book for everyone who is young, poor, fed up and yearning for something exciting to happen

Irish Times

This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met

J. K. Rowling
penguin pop image
penguin pop image