Daphne du Maurier Country
I’ve always been a huge fan of Daphne du Maurier and I’ve read as many of her her books and short stories as I could get hold of. Most, if not all, of her novels were set in Cornwall and described a dramatic and beautiful coastal landscape punctuated by empty moorland. The most evocative works, I think, were “Frenchman’s Creek”, “Jamaica Inn” and of course, “Rebecca”.
Curiously, I had never managed to take a trip to Cornwall until last week when we headed down for a week’s holiday in a country cottage. I had had a hectic time at work and I was tired. It was a long drive from London and as we got stuck in yet another traffic jam, I was beginning to wonder if it was really going to be worth the effort. But then, we pulled out of Exeter and haded up into the heart of Bodmin Moor and it was as if we had dropped out of the hurly burly of reality into the landscape of great fiction.
Bodmin Moor was just how I had imagined it to be - vast swathes of heath and moor, sweeping out across the vista like a stormy sea carved into the dark earth while in the distance, craggy tors brooded sullenly. You see - the drama of the view even makes one wax into purple prose. I was thrilled to see that you can go to the Daphne du Maurier Experience at Jamaica Inn - yes, there really is a Jamaica Inn on Bodmin Moor - where you can see her writing desk and recreations of scenes from “Frenchman’s Creek”. (We didn’t stop this time - but next time, I shall be there with my camera for a must-have pic of The Desk…)
We went for walks along the cliff tops and again, it was like being in one of her novels - this time, “Rebecca”. The South West Coastal Path perches you on the cliff edge, one precarious footstep away from certain death on sharp, rugged rocks in a foaming sea. I kept thinking of Mrs Danvers saying to the nameless heroine, “Go on, jump. You know you want to.”
Happily, the thought of cream teas and saffron buns kept me from the hypnotic pull of the rhythmic waves… you know you want to, you know you want to. No. No, I don’t want to. I want hot buttered scones and clotted cream.
I shall now have to dig out my old Daphne du Maurier novels and re-read them all. With the nights drawing in and the winter chill in the air, the next few months will be a great time to snuggle up in bed with hot chocolate and a windswept book.
If you’re a Daphne du Maurier fan, do share your thoughts about Cornwall, her books, your favourite characters/ scenes, cream teas… please add a comment or email me.
- Posted on
Wed, September 27th, 2006 - Author
Yang-May Ooi - Category
- 6 responses
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September 28th, 2006 at 9:14 am
Yang_may
Sorry to be Rebecca pedant but as this is my favourite and most read book I have to comment…Mrs Danvers was enocuraging “the girl” to jump from a window in Mandalay not from a cliff top…..Yes I am a huge huge fan…Rebecca is a fantastic book full of mystery and dark sublety….Mrs Danvers of course is my favourite character so scary…my favourite bit of the book is the denoument when Max tells the Girl “love Rebecca, you think I loved her …I hated her” fantastic stuff.
now i saw a very interesting take on the book recently saying that Maxime De Winter was really a serial wife abuser…He w killed Rebecca because she was having sex outside her sexless marriage and then imprisoned the girl for ever into sharing and running away from the “secret” ,having got away with the murder….thoughts on this ?
January 20th, 2007 at 5:54 am
I am an ardent Daphne Du Maurier fan, my all time favourires are Frenchman’s Creek, Jamiaca Inn, My Cousin Rachel….and several others but yes, in that order. I do love Rebecca but the screen version was very kind to Lawrence Olivier, I felt…I hope to visi the festival this year. Your blog helped me get a feel of what the stay might be like…would it be possible for you to let me know of a comfortable place to stay as I will be travelling to the area for the first time. Since it is the centenary, there may be a lot of rush…i like your account of the place very much. I, too, feel the windswept landscape when I pick up any of her books to read.
April 6th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
We’re visiting Cornwall in June and I, too, am looking forward to seeing the DuMaurier sites. I’ve been a fan since I was a child. Rebecca was the first mystery I read and I fell in love with England immediately. We’re staying at a B&B on Bodmin Moor called, I think, Barrio Farm. It’s reasonable and the owners are accommodating and friendly.
April 8th, 2007 at 10:14 am
Cathy- Rebecca is an under-rated classic, I feel. Fantastic tension and I love the surprise ending. It really had the Wow Factor for me when I first read it.
Vendana- I do hope you’ll report back re your trip to the festival.
Stevie- You have a very dark take on the story. It makes me think of the Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys’s version of Jane Eyre which has Rochester as a very much darker figure, with hints of racism etc.
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