Who is daphne du maurier

This hidden boy exploded into the light in , when Du Maurier met and fell in love with Ellen Doubleday , the wife of her US publisher, and the addressee of the letter in which these revelations were made. Her feelings were not reciprocated, but they opened the gates for a later affair with Gertrude Lawrence, an actor with whom her father had also been involved. The word transgender was not yet in common currency.

Actually she felt she was a boy, very much in love, and stuck in the wrong body. At the same time — perhaps pragmatically, perhaps not — she was a woman committed to staying married to her husband. She was by no means the only writer to feel herself two things at once.

Many critics have caught a similar note in Ernest Hemingway, who often wrote about sex as a place in which genders could be temporarily and blissfully exchanged. Virginia Woolf, too, experienced herself as protean, slipping between sexes; her gender-shifting, time-distorting romp Orlando gave voice to her feelings for her lover Vita Sackville-West.

The narrator repeatedly casts herself as an androgyne. The full heat of her desire is for Rebecca. She speculates about what her body might have looked like: her height and slenderness, the way she wore her coat slung lazily over her shoulders, the colour of her lipstick, her elusive scent, like the crushed petals of azaleas. Mrs Danvers serves as a much more obvious proxy for Venetian tendencies. She was embodying closeted lesbian realness even before Judith Anderson catapulted her into the high camp stratosphere in the Hitchcock film.

Manderley was based on Menabilly, an abandoned house near Fowey in Cornwall, which had bewitched Du Maurier as a girl. Like Manderley, Menabilly was strangely elusive. After she returned from Egypt, she managed to lease it from the owner and remained based there for most of her life.

But she never quite possessed it, and in she was expelled after years of legal battles. Though she could still walk its grounds, Mena was as lost to her as if it had been swallowed in a fire. The one sad announcement that we had to make was that the Fowey Festival of Arts and Literature would not be able to go ahead this year because of ongoing restrictions to keep us safe during the pandemic.

However, we had an extra special Festival to look forward to in and some great zoom events for us to enjoy in the meantime. In the world of Daphne du Maurier, is an important year with some special anniversaries for us all to consider.

The Loving Spirit , Daphne's first novel was published in the UK on 23rd February and so celebrates its 90th anniversary on that day.

This much-loved debut novel is a family saga, based on a real family and set in and around Fowey in Cornwall, where Daphne was to find so much inspiration for her writing. This first novel was, of course, the beginning of a canon of work that we all love to read, re-read, and discuss all these years later.

This on-going love for her work confirming that Daphne, who struggled with the title of romantic novelist throughout her lifetime, is a truly great writer, whose importance in literature is growing with every year that passes. There are several more anniversaries in And the book that we are personally immensely proud of here at the Daphne du Maurier website, The Doll: Short Stories is ten years old, this May, both here and in the US.

Then there are two biographical works with special anniversaries. This year is the 70th anniversary for The Young George du Maurier: A Selection of his Letters , edited by Daphne and published by her cousin Peter Davies, this book is an excellent contribution to what we know about George du Maurier. It is also a great collaboration by two of his grandchildren. This book is probably one of the least well-known books in Daphne's canon, but it is definitely worth reading if you can find a copy.

The last of Daphne's books to celebrate a special anniversary this year is, The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories published in in the UK, and so is 40 years old this year. I also want to mention Angela du Maurier, because two of her books, and perhaps the most important two, also celebrate special anniversaries this year. They are the novel The Little Less , published in the UK and the US in , so eighty years ago, which is remarkable when you consider that this is her controversial lesbian novel.

And then there is Angela's first volume of autobiography, It's Only the Sister , published in and so 70 years old this year. Do try to get hold of a copy of this book.

It was reprinted in paperback in , and second-hand copies of that edition should only cost a few pounds. I am sure you would find this book a fascinating read. Daphne said that it was better than her own autobiography Growing Pains.

With all these titles celebrating special anniversaries this year, you have immediately got some super choices to add to your reading lists. What an opportunity to read for the first time or re-read some of Daphne du Maurier finest work. Keep an eye on this Home Page, our News Page and the Fowey Festival pages, because we will be adding to them as the year goes by. Your thoughts and comments are always valuable, and we could not run this website without all of you out there cheering us on, so get in touch by email, via the forum or on Facebook and Twitter.

In March we re-launched the Daphne du Maurier website. We extend thanks to the du Maurier Browning family for its on-going support and John Baxendale for all his work running the site for so many years. You will find information about Daphne du Maurier's life and work, and her family and associates, on this site.

A Forum provides an opportunity for Daphne's readers, followers, admirers, and fans to contribute their views and knowledge, a News Page to keep you up to date with the latest information on people, places, and events connected with Daphne, and much more. At the top of the page, is a picture of the Gribbin Head, just outside Fowey, a feature of the landscape that was so important to Daphne du Maurier and her writing.

They suggested that we forge links with them, and, with the blessing of the du Maurier Browning family, that is precisely what we did.

Stevenson's Treasure Island. In March du Maurier sailed to Alexandria, Egypt, to join her husband at his new post, but she hated it and ended up returning to England in January There she gave birth to her second daughter, Flavia, in April of That same year, du Maurier published a biographical work on her famous family entitled simply The Du Mauriers. The year marked the publication of du Maurier's most acclaimed novel, Rebecca. Considered a classic work of Gothic fiction, it is a suspenseful psychological mystery that takes place on a "secretive and silent" estate known as Manderley.

The novel's opening line-"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…. It went on to win the Academy Award for best picture. But du Maurier herself never quite understood its popularity.

On November 3, , du Maurier gave birth to a son, Christian. Another one of her fondest wishes came true in when she finally signed a lease on her beloved Menabilly. She then proceeded to spend a great deal of money restoring the property, an expense many considered foolish given the wartime shortage of manpower and materials as well as the fact that she did not actually own the house.

Du Maurier ignored such comments and went ahead with her plans. She remained at Menabilly for more than 25 years until she was forced to vacate the estate in when her landlord decided he wanted to live there instead. Du Maurier then settled nearby at Kilmarth, a seaside home in the village of Par. Throughout her life, writing served as a form of therapy for du Maurier; her days were structured around her various routines, which she found were as important to her creative process as inspiration.

From the s through the s, she published many more novels, novellas, biographies, autobiographies, and short-story collections. Du Maurier's growing interest in the supernatural was reflected in some of her later work in particular, which blended her usual suspense with a touch of the macabre.

The combination translated well to the screen; in addition to Rebecca, seven of her novels and one short story, "The Birds," were made into movies. In , du Maurier branched out into yet another genre when she and her son collaborated on a travel book about the Cornish countryside entitled Vanishing Cornwall. It featured du Maurier's text accompanied by Christian Browning's photographs. In Browning made a film of their joint effort that also proved to be a great success. Du Maurier spent her later years walking, traveling, and writing.

She eventually lost her appetite for life after her creativity and imagination began to fail her. By the late s her health had declined to the point that she required nursing care, and on April 20, , she died in her sleep at the age of 81 at her home in Par.

All rights reserved. Attended Finishing School in France In early , just before her eighteenth birthday, du Maurier left England to attend finishing school at Camposena, a village near Meudon, outside of Paris, France. Yearned for Independence After leaving school in France, du Maurier struggled to find her place in the world.

Discovered Inspiration in Rundown Mansion It was around that same time that she first came across the abandoned estate of Menabilly, near Fowey, which would play such a prominent role in both her personal and professional life.