Daphne Du Maurier

Description

"Rebecca", published in 1938, brought its author instant international acclaim, capturing the popular imagination in a way that few other 20th-century novels have done, with its haunting atmosphere of suspense and mystery. But the more fame this and her other books encouraged, the more reclusive Daphne du Maurier became. Drawing on hitherto unpublished private letters and papers, and with the co-operation of du Maurier's family, Margaret Forster explores the novelist's personal dramas: the stifling relationship with her father, Gerald du Maurier, her troubled marriage to war hero "Boy" Browning, her wartime love affair, and her deep friendship with the actress Gertrude Lawrence. Forster also looks behind the relaxed and charming facade to expose the workings of a complex and emotional character whose passionate and often violent stories possibly mirrored her own fantasy-life more than has been generally recognized. The book won the Macallan/Writers' Guild 1993 Non-fiction Award.

Born in Carlisle, Margaret Forster was the author of many successful and acclaimed novels, including Have the Men Had Enough?, Lady's Maid, Diary of an Ordinary Woman, Is There Anything You Want? , Keeping the World Away, Over and The Unknown Bridesmaid. She also wrote bestselling memoirs - Hidden Lives, Precious Lives and, most recently, My Life in Houses - and biographies. She was married to writer and journalist Hunter Davies and lived in London and the Lake District. She died in February 2016, just before her last novel, How to Measure a Cow, was published.

Altogether a model biography - human sympathy tempered with honesty and spiced with real intelligence -- Lorna Sage * Observer * A startlingly good biography * The Times * Convincing throughout ... Margaret Forster's interpretation of her subject is so complete and so persuasive that it leaves nothing for the reader to do except admire and enjoy * Independent on Sunday * Forster's acute and sensitive book succeeds on many levels ... Its most important achievement is to disprove the highbrow assumption that bestsellers are shallow ... and do not ... engage the depths of the psyche -- John Carey * Sunday Times * Margaret Forster can do no wrong ... The story is as gripping as Rebecca, as full of surprises as My Cousin Rachel ... affectionate, honest, unsentimental and perceptive * Daily Mail *