On the tracks of Daphne in Meudon, Boulogne, and Neuilly, I would like to thank Julien Le Magueresse, from the Hauts-de-Seine Departmental Archives, and Stéphanie Le Toux, from the Archives Deparment in Meudon, as well as Thérèse-Marie Brachet, from the Documentation Center of the Art and History Museum in Meudon. For their precious help concerning the genealogy of the Busson du Maurier family, my thanks to Anne Hall, Philippe Larus, Lionel and Monique Royer. My thanks to Xavier Lachazette for his works on the novelist. In Fowey, my thanks to Ann and David Willmore, from the Bookends bookstore, Lynn Goold, from the Daphne du Maurier Literary Centre, and Alex and Martin, from the Old Quay House Hotel. My thanks also to: Felicity Blunt, Bruno Corty, Claire Desserey, Laila Embelton, Emma Harding, Christine Faunch, Christianne Lim, Anouk Neuhoff, Géraldine Meignan, Esther Rowe, Audrey Siourd, Philippe de Spoelberch, Isabella Thomas-Varouxakis, Christiana and Arnaud Troubetzkoy. A special thank-you to my translator, Sam Taylor, who worked on this edition in English. It’s not easy translating a bilingual author and he handled it brilliantly. Thank you to Sylvan Creekmore at St. Martin’s Press, for help.
Last but not least, my thanks to Nicolas for his serenity during the writing of this book, even when I sprayed Daphne’s perfume around (Vent Vert by Balmain) in an attempt to help bring her back to life. He now knows the du Maurier code as well as I do.
GLOSSARY
THE DUMAURIER CODE
LIST OF CODE WORDS
Brewing: thinking up a novel
Cairo: intercourse
Crumb: good, wonderful
Dago: effeminate
Doing a Miss Clarke: overdoing it
Gondal: the world of the imaginary
Hard chair: to be offended
Honky: vulgar
Menace: an attractive person
Nanny: scary
Pegs: inspirations for characters
Robert: menstruation
Routes: habits
Royal: well brought up
See-me: vain
Shilling: disappointment
Spinning: sexual preliminaries
Tell-him: boring
To cliff: to ignore
Venetian: lesbian
Waine: embarrassing
Wax: make love
Witherspoons: boring people
NICKNAMES
Bing, Track, or Tray: Daphne du Maurier
Bird: Jeanne du Maurier
Ferdie: Fernande Yvon
Hacker: Olive Browning
Kicky: George du Maurier
Kits: Christian Browning
Lady Mo: Muriel du Maurier
Mena: Menabilly
Moper: Tommy Boy Browning
Piffy: Angela du Maurier
The Zulus: the children of Tessa and her first husband, Peter de Zulueta
NOTES
EPIGRAPH
1. Daphne du Maurier, Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2004), 144.
PART ONE
1. Daphne du Maurier, Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2004), 64.
2. Margaret Forster, Daphne du Maurier, (London: Chatto & Windus, 1993), 16.
3. Daphne du Maurier, Gerald: A Portrait (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2004), 108.
4. du Maurier, Myself When Young, 51.
5. Ibid., 52.
6. Ibid., 62.
7. Daphne du Maurier, The Rebecca Notebooks and Other Memories (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2005), 80–81.
8. du Maurier, Myself When Young, 17.
PART TWO
1. Daphne du Maurier, Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2004), 140.
2. Margaret Forster, Daphne du Maurier (London: Chatto & Windus, 1993), 27.
3. du Maurier, Myself When Young, 85.
4. Ibid., 82.
5. Ibid., 86–87.
6. Ibid., 95–96.
7. Ibid., 100.
8. Ibid., 99.
PART THREE
1. Daphne du Maurier, Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2004), 103.
2. Ibid., 110.
3. Ibid., 116.
4. Ibid., 117.
5. Ibid., 121.
6. Ibid., 130.
7. Ibid., 131.
8. Ibid., 135.
9. Angela du Maurier, It’s Only the Sister (London: Peter Davies, 1951), 141.
10. du Maurier, Myself When Young, 142.
11. Ibid., 147.
12. Ibid., 149.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid., 150.
15. Ibid., 159–60.
16. Ibid., 163.
17. Ibid., 186–87.
18. Ibid., 191.
19. Ibid., 192.
20. Ibid., 193.
21. Ibid.
22. Ibid., 194.
23. Ibid., 195.
24. Helen Taylor (ed.), The Daphne du Maurier Companion (London: Virago Press, 2007), 36–37.
25. Margaret Forster, Daphne du Maurier (London: Chatto & Windus, 1993), 105.
26. Ibid., 126.
27. du Maurier, It’s Only the Sister, 196.
28. Daphne du Maurier, The Rebecca Notebooks and Other Memories (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2005), 5.
29. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 135.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid., 139.
32. Padraic Flanagan, “Interview of Kits Browning,” The Telegraph, April 15, 2014.
33. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 145.
34. Ibid., 144.
35. du Maurier, It’s Only the Sister, 208–9.
36. Ibid., 209–10.
37. Letter from Robert Esménard, IMEC (Institut de la Mémoire de l’Edition Contemporaine, France).
38. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 147.
39. du Maurier, It’s Only the Sister, 215–16.
40. Ibid., 217–18.
41. Ibid., 222–23.
42. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 162.
PART FOUR
1. Margaret Forster, Daphne du Maurier (London: Chatto & Windus, 1993), 188.
2. Flavia Leng, Daphne du Maurier: A Daughter’s Memoir (London: Mainstream, 2007), 60.
3. Letters from Tommy to Daphne, private collection, Tessa Montgomery.
4. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 393.
5. Letter from Robert Esménard, IMEC (Institut de la Mémoire de l’Edition Contemporaine, France).
6. Leng, Daphne du Maurier, 79.
7. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 194.
8. Angela du Maurier, It’s Only the Sister (London: Peter Davies, 1951), 96.
9. Leng, Daphne du Maurier, 96.
10. Ibid., 121.
11. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 221.
12. Ibid., 222.
13. Ibid., 223.
14. Leng, Daphne du Maurier, 148.
15. Ibid., 150.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid., 151.
18. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 234.
19. Ibid., 230.
20. Martyn Shallcross, The Private World of Daphne du Maurier (London: Robson Books, 1998), 136.
21. Leng, Daphne du Maurier, 166.
22. Letter from Tessa to Daphne, private collection, Tessa Montgomery.
23. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 252.
24. Leng, Daphne du Maurier, 187.
25. Ibid., 188.
26. Ibid.
27. Letter from Tes
sa to Daphne, private collection, Tessa Montgomery.
28. Oriel Malet, Letters from Menabilly (London: Orion Books, 1993), 3.
29. Ibid., 20.
30. Ibid., 29.
31. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 262.
32. Details of Albin Michel translation, IMEC (Institut de la Mémoire de l’Edition Contemporaine, France).
33. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 29.
34. Ibid., 36.
35. Ibid., 36.
36. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 272.
37. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 39.
38. Ibid., 33.
39. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 272.
40. Ibid., 274.
41. Letter from Michel Hoffman, 1954, IMEC (Institut de la Mémoire de l’Edition Contemporaine, France).
42. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 283.
43. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 68.
44. Ibid., 75.
45. Letter from Michel Hoffman, IMEC (Institut de la Mémoire de l’Edition Contemporaine, France).
46. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 420–21.
47. Ibid., 424.
48. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 100.
49. Ibid., 99–100.
50. Ibid., 102.
51. Ibid., 106.
52. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 303.
53. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 117.
54. Ibid., 118.
55. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 308.
56. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 128–29.
57. Ibid., 131.
58. Anne Hall, Au pays des souffleurs de verre (Vendôme: Editions du Cherche-Lune, 2010), 170.
59. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 136.
60. Ibid., 136.
61. Ibid., 138.
62. Ibid., 142.
63. Ibid., 164.
64. Ibid., 166.
65. Ibid., 173
66. Ibid., 176.
67. Ibid., 181.
68. Ibid., 183.
69. Ibid., 184.
PART FIVE
1. Margaret Forster, Daphne du Maurier (London: Chatto & Windus, 1993), 318.
2. Daphne du Maurier, The Rebecca Notebooks and Other Memories (London: Virago Modern Classics, 2005), 130.
3. Oriel Malet, Letters from Menabilly (London: Orion Books, 1993), 185.
4. Ibid., 194.
5. Hilary Macaskill, Daphne du Maurier at Home (London: Frances Lincoln, 2013), 114.
6. Angela du Maurier, Old Maids Remember (London: Peter Davies, 1966), 157, 1.
7. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 219.
8. Ibid., 214.
9. Ibid., 215.
10. Ibid., 224.
11. Ibid., 229.
12. Ibid., 233.
13. Ibid., 234.
14. Ibid., 237.
15. Ibid., 239.
16. Daphne du Maurier, The Rebecca Notebooks and Other Memories,152–53.
17. Ibid., 164–65.
18. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 243.
19. Ibid., 244.
20. Ibid., 257.
21. Ibid., 244.
22. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 382.
23. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 261.
24. Ibid., 260.
25. Ibid.
26. Forster, Daphne du Maurier, 386.
27. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 262.
28. Martyn Shallcross, The Private World of Daphne du Maurier (London: Robson Books, 1998), 11.
29. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 262.
30. Letter from Daphne du Maurier to her French publisher Albin Michel, IMEC (Institut de la Mémoire de l’Edition Contemporaine, France).
31. Shallcross, The Private World of Daphne du Maurier, 179–80.
32. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 266, 269.
33. Ibid., 277.
34. Ibid., 282.
35. Alex Hamilton, Writing Talk, (Leicestershire: Matador, 2012), 152.
36. Ibid., 156.
37. Report by Maurice-Bernard Endrèbe to Albin Michel, IMEC (Institut de la Mémoire de l’Edition Contemporaine, France).
38. Interview with Esther Rowe, November 2014.
39. Private collection, Tessa Montgomery.
40. Malet, Letters from Menabilly, 292.
41. Ibid., 293.
42. Ibid., 295.
SOURCES
My sources are Daphne du Maurier’s memoirs, her correspondence, and her author file at the IMEC (the French Institute for Contemporary Publishing Archives).
Her sister Angela du Maurier’s memoirs were indispensable to me, as were her daughter Flavia Leng’s, as well as all three works by her biographers, Margaret Forster, Jane Dunn, and Judith Cook.
Auerbach, Nina. Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2000.
Birkin, Andrew. J. M. Barrie and the Lost Boys. London: Constable, 1979.
Cook, Judith. Daphne: A Portrait of Daphne du Maurier. London: Corgi, 1992.
Doe, Helen. From Facts to Fiction: The Men and Women of Polruan Who Inspired Daphne du Maurier’s First Novel. Oxon: Parchement (Banbury), 1997.
Dudgeon, Piers. Captivated. London: Vintage, 2009.
Du Maurier, Angela. It’s Only the Sister. London: Peter Davies, 1951.
______. Old Maids Remember. London: Peter Davies, 1966.
Du Maurier, Daphne. Enchanted Cornwall. London: Penguin Books, 1981.
______. Myself When Young: The Shaping of a Writer. London: Victor Gollancz, 1977.
______. The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories. London: Victor Gollancz, 1981.
Dunn, Jane. Daphne du Maurier and Her Sisters: The hidden lives of Piffy, Bird and Bing. London: Harper Press, 2013.
Forster, Margaret. Daphne du Maurier. London: Chatto and Windus, 1993.
Hall, Anne. Au pays des souffleurs de verre. Vendôme: Éditions du Cherche-Lune, 2010.
Hamilton, Alex. Writing Talk. Kibworth: Matador, 2012. (See p. 151 in particular.)
Harris, Martin. The Official Guide to Daphne du Maurier in Cornwall. Paignton: Creative Media, 2011.
Hawthorne, Bret. Daphne du Maurier’s Cornwall. Wellington: Halsgrove, 2010.
Kelly, Richard. Daphne du Maurier. Boston: Twayne, 1987.
Lachazette, Xavier. Toit et moi, les maisons réelles ou rêvées de Daphné du Maurier. Le Mans: Université du Maine, 2009.
Leng, Flavia. Daphne du Maurier: A Daughter’s Memoir. Edinburgh: Mainstream, 1994.
Macaskill, Hilary. Daphne du Maurier at Home. London: Frances Lincoln, 2013.
Malet, Oriel. Jam Today, Two Girls in Paris. London: Victor Gollancz, 1957.
______. Letters from Menabilly. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1993.
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Picardie, Justine. Daphne. London: Bloomsbury, 2008.
Robert, Pierre. L’Ascendance française de Daphné du Maurier. Tours: Centre généalogique de Touraine, 1993.
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Shallcross, Martyn. The Private World of Daphne du Maurier. London: Robson Books, 1991.
Taylor, Helen (ed.). The Daphne du Maurier Companion. London: Virago Press, 2007.
Welch, Noël. A Personal View. Axminster: Samphire Books, 2012.
Williams, Michael. The Three du Maurier Sisters. Clifton-upon-Teme: Polperro Heritage Press, 2012.