Originally published Monday, April 28, 2008 at 12:00 AM
Bon vivant Sophie Dahl gets bookish
It seems somehow appropriate that a mischievous dog helped stop Roald Dahl's granddaughter from making a big writing mistake. It happened when model-turned-author...
The Associated Press
NEW YORK — It seems somehow appropriate that a mischievous dog helped stop Roald Dahl's granddaughter from making a big writing mistake.
It happened when model-turned-author Sophie Dahl was composing her first full-length novel in longhand, on a legal pad. She thought it was more romantic that way — and the tone matched.
"It was so childish but I found I was writing as I imagined a book should sound. I had this sort of rather grand voice. It wasn't true," she says. "It was bloody awful."
Thankfully, that's when a puppy — can't you just imagine it leaping from the pages her grandfather's "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"? — destroyed the fledgling novel.
"In the morning, I came down and there was just confetti. The puppy had just ripped everything to shreds," says Dahl, 30. "I thought, 'OK. Fine. Start again.' "
What emerged is the semiautobiographical "Playing With the Grown-ups," which has earned some polite reviews for a young writer hoping to keep a third generation of Dahls in print.
The book captures the adolescence of a girl named Kitty, the precocious daughter of a stunning young artist — the kind of mother who shows up at a school play and leaves behind a "snaky trail of Mitsouko and some wobbly looking fathers."
Kitty's single mother is also a bit tragic. She's a hopeless romantic who puts on extravagant parties, cries at doves cooing on her windowsill — even when they're just city pigeons — and suffers from debilitating bouts of depression. Kitty grows up constantly on the move, from London to New York to a guru's ashram and back again, learning about boys and life. She matures into a head-turner and a bit of a hellcat.
The story line has piqued the interest of the British, who see parallels with the author's life. A beautiful mother who suffers from depression? Check: Dahl's mother is Tessa Dahl, a former actress-turned writer who had Sophie when she was 19 and has chronicled her own personal struggles.
What about the precocious daughter? Check: Sophie had a nomadic childhood that included 10 schools and 17 homes in New York, London and even an ashram. She also matured into a head-turner and a bit of a hellcat, one who reportedly dated Mick Jagger.
Dahl became a model when she was 18, a 6-foot, wide-eyed stunner whose nonheroin-chic curves became a tabloid staple. She hit star status after posing naked in an ad for Opium perfume, a campaign so racy it provoked protests in Britain and France.
Nan A. Talese, who released the book on her own Doubleday imprint, says Dahl's beauty can sometimes overshadow her skill with words.
"I'm just so keen for her to keep on writing because she has a remarkable insight into human nature, she has a great sense of humor and in this book she's certainly enormously forgiving," Talese says.
Dahl hopes Americans will enjoy her own debut without knowing all her back story. "Here, they're more interested in my genes than the size of my jeans," she says.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
Local books | A new Jance thriller, Starbucks' corporate history and an orphan's tale
Lit Life: National recognition for Seattle's readergirlz online book community
The Ultimate Holiday Cookbook Social at Palace Ballroom
Journalist and author Amy Goodman in Seattle
Book review: "Molly Ivins: A Rebel Life:" Fearless, funny and opinionated

PNW Magazine | Easy As Pie
A little friendly competition between professional pie-baker Kate McDermott and The Seatttle Times' Kathleen Triesch Saul is handled with great taste.
general classifieds
Garage & estate salesFurniture & home furnishings
Sporting goods
just listed
1 New Miller Safety Harness and 2 new shock absorb - $245
1960s Couch - $75
1ct Rd GIA Cert - $4600
More listings
POST A FREE LISTING
shopping
events for Tuesday, Nov. 24
- 5th Annual Urban Craft Uprising
- Bella Umbrella Holiday Sale
- Thanksgiving Weekend Sales at The Bravern
- Metropolitan Pilates Pre-Thanksgiving Sale
editors' picks
- Local jewelry designers
- Vintage, consignment and used clothing
- Independent bookstores
- Maternity shopping
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Tugboat sinks at Seattle waterfront pier
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- Vikings easily beat the Seahawks
- Craigslist adoption ad: A plea by young mother-to-be? A scam?
- Chase shrugs off loss of CD investors
- Woman stabbed by stranger in North Seattle
- Snow piles up on Cascade slopes
- Denny Triangle gains skyline, but tenants slow to come
- Illegal workers quietly let go
405 - Climate change speeds up since 1997 Kyoto accord
215 - Metro won't cut bus service after all
160 - New Husky recruit: Enes Kanter
105 - Bellevue residents blast new bikini espresso stand
91 - Middleton says Huskies "plan on scoring at least 50 points'' Saturday
86 - Tattoos at Mill Creek Church pierce skin, soul
85 - Seattle woman charged with knife attack on boyfriend's ex
76 - Jerry Brewer: Seahawks can't lean on the Hutch Crutch now
75 - Senate Democrats split on health bill's fate
58
- Sprouts, raw fish on attorney's 'do not eat' list
- Tattoos at Mill Creek church pierce skin, soul
- Food-safety lawyer's wish: Put me out of business
- Illegal workers quietly let go
- Architects, chefs find 'kid' within to build Gingerbread Village
- Rediscovering Moab, 'the most beautiful place on Earth'
- It's possible to recover a life lost to hoarding
- Child-support error costs nearly $21,000
- 'The Road' takes Viggo Mortensen to Mount St. Helens and Astoria, Ore.
- Hutch gets $10M from Bezos family for immunotherapy research

