"I write this sitting in the kitchen sink" is the first line of a novel about love, sibling rivalry and a bohemian existence in a crumbling castle in the middle of nowhere. Cassandra Mortmain's journal records her fadingly glamorous stepmother, Topaz; her beautiful, wistful older sister, Rose; and the man to whom all three of them owe their isolation and their poverty: Father.

I Capture the Castle has inspired writers as diverse as Armistead Maupin and Joanna Trollope and remains a classic tale of the triumph of youthful naivety over middle-aged cynicism.