Daphne du Maurier
May 13, 1907 – April 19, 1989
Also known as: Daphne du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, was an English novelist, biographer and playwright. Her parents were actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, actress Muriel Beaumont. Her grandfather was George du Maurier, a writer and cartoonist. Although du Maurier is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. Her bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but they have since earned an enduring reputation for narrative craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, Frenchman's Creek, My Cousin Rachel and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". Du Maurier spent much of her life in Cornwall, where most of her works are set. As her fame increased, she became more reclusive.
Daphne was born into a creative and successful family. Her grandfather was the brilliant artist and writer George du Maurier and her father was Gerald du Maurier, the most famous actor-manager and matinee idol of his day. Her mother, Muriel Beaumont, was also an actress.
She was the second of three sisters and had a privileged upbringing in Hampstead. The family bought a holiday home in Cornwall in the 1920s and that house - Ferryside at Bodinnick - became Daphne's favourite haunt and a place of solitude that enabled her to work seriously on her early writing career. Her first novel, The Loving Spirit, was published in 1931 and her success went from strength to strength.
In 1932 she married Frederick Browning, a military man, and they had three children. She lived at Menabilly, the Rashleigh owned manor house just outside Fowey, for about 25 years and wrote many of her books in a writing-hut in the grounds with a view over The Gribbin (pictured above). She continued to live a privileged life, with staff to run her home and look after the children, and was proud to be the family breadwinner with the success of her writing.
When she eventually left Menabilly she rented Kilmarth, the dower house to the Menabilly estate, and continued to write until health and old age prevented it.
For a long time Daphne du Maurier was described as a romantic novelist. This is completely misleading as she wrote dark, often gothic and edgy novels and short stories, with unexpected twists or suspenseful endings.