Completed shortly before her death in 1989, this is Daphne du Maurier's personal memoir, the story of how in Cornwall she found herself as a writer and as a person. Illustrated with 78 colour and black-and-white photographs, including many from the author’s personal collection, this is the story of a magical relationship between an extraordinary woman and the spirit of a place. It will have special significance for millions who have enjoyed her books and want to know more about this very private author. Here is the story of what led her to write Rebecca, which this year won the W H Smith Nation’s Favourite Book Competition ahead of novels by Dickens, Austen, Orwell and the Brontës. Here is what moved Daphne to write My Cousin Rachel, made into one of 2017’s must-see movies, and what in her personal life led to Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, The House on the Strand, The Birds and many other of her best-known stories. Here is a book for all to enjoy: her readers, those who have enjoyed her films, and lovers of beauty and enchantment everywhere.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dame Daphne du Maurier (Lady Browning) was born in London in 1907, the second daughter of Sir Gerald and Lady Muriel du Maurier. He was the leading actor manager of the day, and Daphne grew up in a wildly imaginative Peter Pan world peopled by writers and actors, J M Barrie (known as Uncle Jim) included.
In 1926 Daphne travelled with her mother and two sisters, Angela and Jeanne, to Fowey in Cornwall and her life was immediately transformed. The place and its people inspired her to write her first novel, The Loving Spirit, which so affected a young major in the Grenadier Guards, later Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Browning, that he travelled to Fowey in his boat, Ygdrasil (The Tree of Fate), to meet its author. They later married.
Numerous books followed, the most enduring being the Cornish works, including the multi-million selling Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman's Creek, The King's General, My Cousin Rachel, and The Birds.
Dame Daphne died on April 19, 1989, at home at Kilmarth, her house set high on the cliffs, near Par, in Cornwall.
