Dorothy Gladys "Dodie" Smith was an English novelist and playwright. Smith is best known for her novel The Hundred and One Dalmatians. Her other works include I Capture the Castle and The Starlight Barking. Dorothy was born on 3 May 1896 in Whitefield, near Bury in Lancashire. An only child, her parents were Ernest and Ella Smith . Ernest was a bank manager; he died in 1898, when Dorothy was two years old. Dodie and her mother moved to Old Trafford to live with her grandparents, William and Margaret Furber. Dorothy's childhood home, known as Kingston House, was at 609 Stretford... Road. It faced the Manchester Ship Canal, and she lived with her mother, maternal grandparents, two aunts, and three uncles. In her autobiography Look Back with Love , she credits her grandfather William as one of three reasons she became a playwright. He was an avid theatergoer, and they had long talks about Shakespeare and melodrama. The second reason, her uncle Harold Furber, an amateur actor, read plays with her and introduced her to contemporary drama.
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| Birthdate: | May 3, 1896 |
| Birthplace: | Whitefield |
| Date of death: | November 24, 1990 |
| Also known as: | Dorothy Gladys Smith |