du Maurier, Dame Daphne
du Maurier, Dame Daphne ( 1907 – 89 ),novelist, born in London, the daughter of actor-manager Gerald and granddaughter of George du Maurier . It was not until her family bought a second home in Cornwall that she escaped the social life she hated, and which had interfered with her writing. Living alone there through the winter of 1929 – 30 she produced her first novel, The Loving Spirit ( 1931 ), which was an immediate success, satisfying the inter-war longing for romantic sagas. V. Gollancz , who published her frank memoir of her father (Gerald, 1934 ), encouraged her to develop her powerful narrative skill and evocation of atmosphere, and the result was Jamaica Inn ( 1936 ). Married in 1932 to Major Frederick Browning , she was obliged to go abroad with him when he was posted to Egypt, where she became desperately homesick: this unhappy period produced Rebecca ( 1938 ), a...
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