Cassandra Mortmain lives in a crumbling castle in the English countryside with her eccentric family. Life seems to her as though it’s just rolling on slowly – then the Cottons arrive. A wealthy American family, they have just inherited the nearby Hall.

I Capture the Castle is a beautiful and sweet coming of age novel, written when Smith was living in California during World War II. Smith’s own homesickness and nostalgia seeps through, creating a delicate and tender picture of a place and time that was already ceasing to exist even as she was writing about it.

Cassandra’s voice is so strong throughout that it cannot be possible to finish this novel and not feel as though a friend has been found for life.

Isobel Moore is from Readings St Kilda.