This blog post should have been written right after I read the book, but I needed to wait for a time when I had lots of work and needed the procrastinating. As luck would have it, I forgot what I was going to say. I jotted down the page numbers of two quotes for future reference. I know I Capture the Castle was a good book, but it’s probably good I don’t blurt out any spoilers here.

Just read the novel – though with a word of warning if you don’t like teenage girls and their romances. The narrator here is one, though filtered through a woman in her fifties. Playwright Dodie Smith (most famous as the writer for 101 Dalmatians) took two years to write and re-write a year in the life of a 1930s teenager with literary aspirations living in a decrepit castle in England. The writing comes out pretty good, the characters are all perfect for not being perfect – normal people with no one entirely villainous, like most people in real life. There’s comedy too, with the bear fur coat part as my favourite.

Now for my two quotes – for my reference – probably boring for you, dear reader:

Page 277, on finding help in bad times:

Then I told myself that as I never gave the Church a thought when I was happy, I could hardly expect it to do anything for me when I wasn’t. You can’t get insurance money without paying the premiums.

Page 279, the best description for the use of religion I’ve heard, which more people should keep in mind:

‘It’s merely shorthand for where we come from, where we’re going, and what it’s all about.’

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