The Cornwall of Daphne du Maurier
By Jean Paschke

British Heritage  | 0 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

She came from a line of distinguished eccentrics. Her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke, dallied with the Duke of York. Her grandfather, George du Maurier, was a Punch caricaturist and novelist who wrote Trilby and Peter Ibbetson, largely unread today but wildly popular in their time. Her father, Sir George du Maurier, was a famous actor-manager who ran Wyndham’s Theatre in London. He introduced a natural style of acting, drawing gasps when he casually lit a cigarette on stage. He treated his three daughters like the sons he never had, teaching them boxing and cricket. “Uncle Jim” Barrie wrote Peter Pan for her cousins.

She was a staunch royalist—her husband, Major Frederick Arthur Montague Browning, otherwise “Tommy,” was comptroller and treasurer to the royal family for many years, and she once wept at the queen’s speech—but she found weekends at Balmoral boring and being presented at court silly. She worried about finances, but refused to promote her books with signings, television appearances or press conferences. She deplored the increased tourism in Cornwall while being partly responsible for it.

She never settled on one writing style, turning out Gothics (Rebecca has been called the first major Gothic romance of the 20th century), biographies, historical and popular romances, tales of horror, plays, short stories, science fiction, family histories and a mystery that remains a mystery: Readers of My Cousin Rachel who can’t decide whether Rachel was a poisoner or not, take heart; the author couldn’t either.

“That’s what’s so wonderful, isn’t it?” asks guide Lynn Goold, who has interpreted Daphne du Maurier’s life and work and led guided walks around the Cornish port of Fowey for 20 years. “It’s wonderful to be able to read a variety of her work, and there’s always a twist in the tale.”

She wrote a memoir without mentioning her life after her marriage. Egypt, where she lived while Tommy was stationed there, inspired her not at all; she couldn’t wait to return to Cornwall, her physical and spiritual home. Meanwhile, she started to write Rebecca.

Today, tourists from all over the world come to Fowey (pronounced Foy), on the Cornish Riviera, to explore the world of Dame Daphne du Maurier. They walk up the esplanade and around the seacoast where she walked, and see her parents’ home, where her son Christian (Kits) lives today with his family.

They cross the bay to Bodinnick to see the Old Ferry Inn, where the du Mauriers lunched on the day they first saw their new summer home. Those who arrive by train and catch the bus for Fowey at Par can take a short walk to nearby Tywardreath village and St. Andrew’s Church, which Daphne brought to 14th-century life for The House on the Strand. Most of them visit the Daphne du Maurier Literary Centre, where they can join a guided tour, read about her life and work, view a video and browse the shelves where her books can be found translated into Russian, French and Serbo-Croatian.

“There are those who come who know Daphne, and then there are those who have an idea who she is, or have vaguely heard about her,” says Goold. “A lot of them read her when they were young, and it kindled all sorts of memories of their childhood. If they don’t know who Daphne is, they almost certainly have read or heard of Rebecca, so if I say, ‘Have you ever heard of a novel called Rebecca?’ you can see the penny drop. People from other countries might not have heard of Daphne, but when they see the association with the countryside, it’s a nice sort of journey of exploration. A lot of people buy the books just as memorabilia of their holiday.”

Daphne du Maurier was born 100 years ago, growing up in London’s Regent’s Park and Hampstead. She was educated at home and at a French finishing school. Her family frequently summered in the country, where she adored the freedom to run and play games of her imagination in the woods. In 1927 the du Mauriers bought a modest summer home built into the hillside at Bodinnick overlooking Fowey, a picturesque village and working port that with a little stretch of the imagination could be in the Mediterranean. The house was originally called Swiss Cottage because of its half-timbered facade. The family eventually relieved it of its Alpine touches and renamed it Ferryside.

Tags: British Heritage, Culture, Literature, Women's History

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.