Manderley forever : a biography of Daphne Du Maurier

Summary: "Though Daphne du Maurier's most famous work, Rebecca, is beloved across the world, she remains one of the most enigmatic British novelists, her heart's secrets as shrouded in darkness as the tales she told. Tatiana de Rosnay, fascinated by du Maurier since childhood, wanted to unravel the mystery of this author who, like the characters she created, cultivated a life of secrecy and hidden passion. Writing as if she were watching from the corner of every room, Tatiana places herself in the mind's eye of Daphne du Maurier. More than a simple biography, this book has the emotional spirit of a novel. A bilingual novelist herself with a mixed Franco-British bloodline, de Rosnay is the perfect candidate to write a biography of Daphne du Maurier in a beguiling and page-turning way. As an eleven-year-old, de Rosnay read and reread Rebecca, feeling a kinship with this mysterious author, and becoming a lifelong devotee of du Maurier's fiction. Tatiana's admiration is palpable as she describes du Maurier's life in vivid detail: from a shy seven-year-old in London, to a rebellious sixteen-year-old at finishing school in Paris, to a twentysomething newlywed as she wrote her first novel, to the famous Menabilly mansion, Daphne's most beloved home and the inspiration for "Manderley" in Rebecca, and finally the Kilmarth house on the sea, where, as a cantankerous old lady, she spent the last of her days. Tatiana de Rosnay and Daphne du Maurier: two women caught up in the same romantic passion. With a rhythm and intimacy to its prose characteristic of all de Rosnay's works, Manderley Forever is a brilliantly compelling celebration of an intriguing, hugely popular, and (in her time) critically underrated writer."--Jacket.