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Novelist Daphne Du Maurier is at a crossroads in her life. She’s just turned 50. Her husband, Tommy, is having a nervous breakdown, he’s been having an affair for several years, and their marriage has become distant and remote. Daphne becomes absorbed in writing a new book, a biography of Branwell Bronte, brother of the famous Bronte sisters. Daphne has been obsessed with the Brontes since childhood and wants to rehabilitate Branwell’s reputation. She corresponds with Alex Symington, a librarian who is an expert on Branwell’s manuscripts, but has some secrets of his own. Another strand of the novel is about a young woman researching her PhD on Daphne in present day London. This is the least effective part of the novel. The references to Du Maurier’s most famous novel, Rebecca, are not subtle and don’t really add much to the book. The story of Du Maurier and her life at Menabilly, the house in Cornwall which inspired Manderley in Rebecca, is absorbing. A novel for anyone who loves reading about writers and their obsessions.
---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters
Novelist Daphne Du Maurier is at a crossroads in her life. She’s just turned 50. Her husband, Tommy, is having a nervous breakdown, he’s been having an affair for several years, and their marriage has become distant and remote. Daphne becomes absorbed in writing a new book, a biography of Branwell Bronte, brother of the famous Bronte sisters. Daphne has been obsessed with the Brontes since childhood and wants to rehabilitate Branwell’s reputation. She corresponds with Alex Symington, a librarian who is an expert on Branwell’s manuscripts, but has some secrets of his own. Another strand of the novel is about a young woman researching her PhD on Daphne in present day London. This is the least effective part of the novel. The references to Du Maurier’s most famous novel, Rebecca, are not subtle and don’t really add much to the book. The story of Du Maurier and her life at Menabilly, the house in Cornwall which inspired Manderley in Rebecca, is absorbing. A novel for anyone who loves reading about writers and their obsessions.
---- Reviewed by Lyn, Headquarters
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