She Came from a Line of Distinguished Eccentrics. Her Great-Great- Home, Where Her Son Christian (Kits) Lives Today with His Family

he was a staunch royalist—her husband, Major Frederick Arthur Montague Brown- ing, 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 Bal- moral boring and being presented at court silly. She worried about finances, but re- fused to promote her books with signings, television appearances or press confer- ences. She deplored the increased tourism in Cornwall while being partly responsible for it. SShe 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 his- tories and a mystery that remains a mystery: Readers of My Cousin Rachel who can’t decide whether Rachel was a poi- soner 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 (pro- By Jean Paschke nounced 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’ She came from a line of distinguished eccentrics. Her great-great- home, where her son Christian (Kits) lives today with his family. They cross the bay to Bodinnick to see the Old Ferry Inn, grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke, dallied with the Duke of York. Her where the du Mauriers lunched on the day they first saw their new summer home. Those who arrive by train and catch the grandfather, George du Maurier, was a Punch caricaturist and novelist bus for Fowey at Par can take a short walk to nearby Tywar- dreath village and St. Andrew’s Church, which Daphne brought who wrote Trilby and Peter Ibbetson, largely unread today but wildly 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 popular in their time. Her father, Sir George du Maurier, was a famous and browse the shelves where her books can be found trans- lated into Russian, French and Serbo-Croatian. actor-manager who ran Wyndham’s Theatre in London. He introduced “There are those who come who know Daphne, and then there are those who have an idea who she is, or have vaguely a natural style of acting, drawing gasps when he casually lit a cigarette heard about her,” says Goold. “A lot of them read her when they were young, and it kindled all sorts of memories of their on stage. He treated his three daughters like the sons he never had, childhood. If they don’t know who Daphne is, they almost cer-

tainly have read or heard of Rebecca, so if I say, ‘Have you ever Y M A L A

heard of a novel called Rebecca?’ you can see the penny drop. / O T teaching them boxing and cricket.“Uncle Jim” Barrie wrote Peter Pan O

People from other countries might not have heard of Daphne, F R E

but when they see the association with the countryside, it’s a P Daphne du Maurier poses on the staircase of Menabilly in 1947. P O P for her cousins. nice sort of journey of exploration. A lot of people buy the ©

MARCH 2007 BRITISH HERITAGE ■ 27 horse in the nursery and a rusty corkscrew on the ‘Here was a block of stone, even as the desert Sphinx, made by mantel. It would even- tually be the setting for man for his own purpose—yet she had a personality that three novels, most no- tably Rebecca, where was hers alone, without the touch of human hand’ Menabilly, along with the memory of another house the villain of her story. Hawk’s Tor, Kilmarth Tor, Twelve Men’s danger of collapse. Daphne did her writing in a garden hut. She she had visited as a child, Moor and Trewartha Tor are other landmarks mentioned in Ja- wrote The King’s General after discovering that there was a skele- became Manderley. maica Inn. ton bricked up in the cellar, with nothing but a table, a trencher One day she saw a World War II found Tommy in various wartime positions. As a and a pair of Cavalier shoes for company. After Rebecca and derelict schooner, Jane lieutenant-general in the Grenadier Guards, he supervised the Sixth Frenchman’s Creek achieved popularity, visitors, including Ameri- Slade, rotting away, its Airborne Corps’ landing at Normandy and played an important can GIs, boldly flocked to the grounds unannounced and un- once-proud figurehead role in the Battle of Arnhem, always accompanied by his “Boys,” wanted. Today there is no public access to Menabilly, and it can slipping into the mud. a briefcase full of teddy bears. Daphne, with their three children, barely be glimpsed through the trees.

S The Slade family gave her rented a small cottage called Readymoney on Readymoney Cove, In June 1969, four years after Tommy’s death, Daphne was E G A access to their family Fowey. Privately owned today, the house is surrounded by lovely forced to leave Menabilly. Her lease had already been extended M I

Y T

T papers, and she turned gardens that are open to the public on occasion. by several years. Dr. Rashleigh had died, and his nephew and heir E G /

S them into her first book, Daphne wrote and resumed her obsession with Menabilly, understandably wanted to move in. He let her rent nearby Kil- E R U

T a romantic novel. In 1931 which she called “my Mena.” She frequently led her children on marth, a house that was part of the Rashleigh estate. It was smaller C I P

E popular romances were long tramps through the beech woods to the wrought-iron gates. and brighter than Menabilly, easier to keep up and located on a F I L

E rather new, and reviewers Up the gravel path they went to spy on the house, which by now cliff overlooking the sea. Daphne added quarters in the back, M I T were at a loss as to what had been abandoned for 20 years. She actually pushed her face where her grandchildren could make noise without disturbing her. Du Maurier’s love affair with Menabilly began in 1927 when she first discovered it in the woods near Fowey; 16 years to make of The Loving into the ivy to kiss the brick walls of the long, two-story house, Older residents of Fowey still remember her driving her little later she finally succeeded in moving in. As Manderley, the vine-covered derelict house became the setting of her most Spirit, but they generally insisting that it was hers “by right of love.” red car at breakneck pace, reversing the wrong way in one-way popular novel, Rebecca, first published in 1938. reviewed it favorably. The Menabilly was originally a Tudor building, although only some streets while shouting a cheery, “They know me here!” Although Slade family gave her the stone-mullioned windows, paneling and cellars survived its 17th- she found it painful, Daphne occasionally walked in the grounds books just as memorabilia of their holiday.” figurehead, and today it is mounted under the eaves of Ferryside. century makeover. It had been built so it could not be seen from of Menabilly, and eventually she visited the new owners. She lived Daphne du Maurier was born 100 years ago, growing up in Encouraged by sales of The Loving Spirit, her publisher issued the sea, except from one secret spot. Daphne spent many hours at Kilmarth until her death in 1985, after several sad years of de- London’s Regent’s Park and Hampstead. She was educated at a book of her short stories, I’ll Never Be Young Again. As an ad- persuading the absentee owner, a Dr. Rashleigh, to let it to her, pression, writer’s block and failing memory. home and at a French finishing school. Her family frequently sum- ditional bonus, dashing Major Tommy Browning piloted his cabin and at last she succeeded in getting Menabilly for a peppercorn Daphne was made a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in mered in the country, where she adored the freedom to run and cruiser into the harbor one day, determined to meet the author of rent, provided she maintain it. But because it was entailed on the 1952 and a Dame of the British Empire in 1969. In 1977 she won play games of her imagination in the woods. In 1927 the du Mau- The Loving Spirit. They married in 1932 and divided their time be- Rashleigh family, there was no chance of the Mystery Writers of America Grand riers bought a modest summer home built into the hillside at Bod- tween Hampstead and Fowey. her ever owning it. Master Award, and in 1996 her face and innick overlooking Fowey, a picturesque village and working port One day in 1936, Daphne and a friend rode horses through the “Here was a block of stone, even as the typewriter graced a British postage stamp. that with a little stretch of the imagination could be in the Mediter- “dark, diabolical beauty” of nearby Bodmin Moor. Lost for hours desert Sphinx, made by man for his own Along with Jamaica Inn, Hitchcock ranean. The house was originally called Swiss Cottage because of in mist and rain, they fell at midnight into a welcome hostelry, Ja- purpose—yet she had a personality that would direct film versions of The Birds and its half-timbered facade. The family eventually relieved it of its maica Inn. Built in 1750 as a coaching house for travelers from was hers alone, without the touch of Rebecca, in which he called the famously Alpine touches and renamed it Ferryside. Launceston to Bodmin, Jamaica Inn soon became the dropping- human hand,” she wrote of the house in unnamed heroine “Daphne.” Other direc- The day after her 20th birthday, Daphne was allowed to remain off point for contraband, including tea, tobacco, silk and brandy. which she lived for 26 years. tors took on Frenchman’s Creek; Hungry at Swiss Cottage while her family went back to London. It was (It probably took its name from the latter.) Daphne’s vivid imag- Every inch of Menabilly needed redoing, Hill; Don’t Look Now; My Cousin Rachel, the first time she had ever lived alone and achieved the peace and ination soon put the inn into one of her most successful books, from plumbing and electricity to painting starring Richard Burton and Olivia de solitude she needed to write. She talked with local families, went filled with smugglers, cutthroats and, of course, forbidden love. and furnishing. Daphne, who hated house- Havilland; and The Scapegoat, which was for long walks, watched boats being laden with china clay as they Reviewed as “perhaps the most accomplished historical romance cleaning, worked along with whomever she given a different ending. There have been still are today and shouted for the ferry when she wanted to cross ever written,” Jamaica Inn was later released as a film, directed could persuade to help her. In 1943 she two television versions of Rebecca, while Y M over to Fowey. She sailed and rowed; a much-reproduced photo- by Alfred Hitchcock, with Maureen O’Hara as heroine Mary happily moved her family in and had every- A Hitchcock’s film went on limited rerelease L A / E

graph shows her pulling valiantly at the oars, Swiss Cottage in the Yellan and Charles Laughton as Sir Humphrey Pengallan. thing ready to greet Tommy when he got E in Britain in 2006, generating at least one R R background. She saw a ship go aground and all its passengers Today visitors can still dine and sleep at the inn. There, a sound- leave that Christmas. O review revealing sinister meanings that H

R E brought to safety, a scene she would depict in Rebecca. and-light show takes them to the world of smugglers, some of The children, Tessa, Flavia and Kits, T most readers would never suspect. E P Her prowlings around the woods near Fowey led her one day Daphne’s artifacts are on view and one of 15 assorted ghosts might were not as enchanted with Menabilly as © Modern critics have paid more serious to a large abandoned house called Menabilly. She visited it again appear in their bedrooms or gallop ominously through the court- their mother. There was no central heating, Yes, the famous smugglers’ pub still stands attention to Daphne’s work, the entire and again, enchanted with its ivy-covered exterior. Glimpses yard. (Oddly, Daphne seems never to have depicted ghosts in her and the bedrooms were frigid in winter. on Bodmin Moor. Alas, the old pirates and canon of which was reprinted in 2003. through its shutters of tattered wallpaper, ancestral portraits and books, not even the woman in blue said to look out of a window Rats, bats and beetles abounded, ferns and brigands who used to frequent it might not feel Since 1997 a Daphne du Maurier Festival other evidence of faded grandeur held great significance for her. at Menabilly.) A few miles to the east is the village of Altarnum, fungus grew out of the walls, and the north at home today, what with the gift shop, self- of Arts and Literature has been held at Once she crept through a window and found a battered rocking where Daphne made the vicar of the “Cathedral of the Moors” wing was off limits because it was in service café and throngs of tourists. Fowey, attracting radio presenters, authors

28 ■ BRITISH HERITAGE MARCH 2007 MARCH 2007 BRITISH HERITAGE ■ 29 and, in 2006, a dramatic presentation of The House on the Strand by the Tywardreath Players. This year’s centenary event will take place May 10-19. Along with lectures and workshops, there will be a buffet lunch over- looking the harbor and a reception hosted by Daphne’s three chil- dren at Ferryside. Another conference, timed to dovetail with the

centenary event, will be held at the University of Exeter, whose E V I H C R A

N O I S I V E L E T

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N O I T O M

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, the film adaptation of Rebecca received 11 Oscar nominations and carried Best Picture honors at the 1941 Academy Awards. With Laurence Olivier playing Maxim and Joan Fontaine as the second Mrs. DeWinter, the movie also featured Judith Anderson as the sinister Mrs. Danvers. N O T N E F

P I L I H P / W E I V N O N I A T I R B Today, tourists from all over the For centuries, the struggling economy of Cornish fishing communities like Fowey was abetted by smuggling and the wreckage of ships world come to Fowey on the foundering in the treacherous coastal waters. Cornish Riviera to explore the Y M A L A world of Daphne du Maurier / O T O F R E P P O P This rare color photo of du Maurier shows her at her happiest, in the gardens of her beloved Menabilly. Y M A L A / Y

Special Collections Library holds an archive of du Maurier family R A R B I

papers. L

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Daphne summed up her Cornish home in these words: “I U T M C O I P C

. walked this land with a dreamer’s freedom and a waking man’s S W A E I H V P

N perception—places, houses, whispered to me their secrets and E O C N © Fowey is but one of many pretty little harbor towns that punctuate Cornwall’s I A shared with me their sorrows and their joys. And in return I gave T I R B south coast. At the mouth of the River Fowey estuary, the town used to be a . them something of myself, a few of my novels passing into the Even with its commercial popularity, Jamaica Inn remains evocative and W W

thriving seaport. Just as at Jamaica Inn, things are much quieter these days. W folk-lore of this ancient place.” ominous on the bleak moor of Bodmin.

MARCH 2007 BRITISH HERITAGE ■ 31 Lost for hours in mist and rain, they fell at midnight into a welcome hostelry, Jamaica Inn…filled with smugglers, cutthroats and, of course, forbidden love

The rugged southern coast of Cornwall has menaced seafarers for centuries. When bad weather rolls in across the North Atlantic, an untold number of ships have been driven, or lured, into the rocks. Even on a calm, sunny day, Land’s End shows its ominous teeth (britainonview/Philip Fenton).