New Releases by Daphne du Maurier

''A marvellous celebration of du Maurier''s life, work and cultural legacy'' SARAH WATERS ''She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense'' GUARDIAN ''One of the last century''s most original literary talents '' DAILY TELEGRAPH Daphne du Maurier is one of Britain''s best-loved bestselling authors. Her writing captured the imagination in a way that few have been able to equal. Rebecca, her most famous novel was a huge success on first publication and brought du Maurier international fame. This enduring classic remains one of the nation''s favourite books. In this celebration of Daphne du Maurier''s life and achievements, today''s leading writers, critics and academics discuss the novels, short stories and biographies that made her one of the most spellbinding and genre-defying authors of her generation. The film versions of her books are also explored, including Alfred Hitchcock''s Rebecca and The Birds and Nicholas Roeg''s Don''t Look Now. Featuring interviews with du Maurier''s family and a long-lost short story by the author herself, this is the indispensable companion to her work. Contributors include Sarah Dunant, Sally Beauman, Margaret Forster, Antonia Fraser, Michael Holroyd, Lisa Jardine, Julie Myerson, Justine Picardie and Minette Walters.

DISCOVER DAPHNE DU MAURIER AT HER DARKEST . . . ''How long he fought with them in the darkness he could not tell, but at last the beating of the wings about him lessened and then withdrew . . .'' A classic of alienation and horror, The Birds was immortalised by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. Discover Daphne du Maurier at her darkest in this free taster of After Midnight, the new collection of her most chilling tales with a brand-new introduction by Stephen King. AFTER MIDNIGHT is available to pre-order now ''Her talent is a bright light that will guide you. These remarkable stories await'' Stephen King ''A marvellously dark, unsettling collection. Tales of nature gone rogue, of morals gone askew, of the blurring of the line between the homely and the uncanny. I loved it'' Sarah Waters ''Masterful, troubling and wickedly seductive'' Sarah Perry ''Du Maurier is mistress of the sleight of hand in fiction'' Maggie O''Farrell ''She was able to make worlds in which people and even houses are mysterious and mutable, not as they seem'' Olivia Laing ''The master of slow-burning menace'' Stacey Halls ''Often imitated and never, ever surpassed'' Laura Shepperson

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA ''An eloquent elegy on the past of a county she loved so much'' THE TIMES ''This classic evocation of du Maurier''s beloved home ranks as a work of art ... '' INDEPENDENT ''Du Maurier has no equal'' SUNDAY TELEGRAPH ''There was a smell in the air of tar and rope and rusted chain, a smell of tidal water. Down harbour, around the point, was the open sea. Here was the freedom I desired, long sought-for, not yet known. Freedom to write, to walk, to wander, freedom to climb hills, to pull a boat, to be alone ... I for this, and this for me.'' Daphne du Maurier lived in Cornwall for most of her life. Its rugged coastline, wild terrain and tumultuous weather inspired her imagination and many of her works are set there, including Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman''s Creek. In Vanishing Cornwall she celebrates the land she loved, exploring its legends, its history and its people, eloquently making a powerful plea for Cornwall''s preservation.

When Daphne du Maurier wrote The du Mauriers she was only thirty years old and had already established herself as both a biographer and a novelist. She wrote this epic biography during a vintage period in her career, between two of her best-loved novels: Jamaica Inn and Rebecca. Her aim was to write the story of her family "so that it reads like a novel." Spanning nearly three quarters of a century, The du Mauriers is a saga of artists and speculators, courtesans and military men. From England to Paris and back again, their fortunes varied as wildly as their ambitions. An extraordinary family of writers, artists and actors they are...The du Mauriers. "Daphne du Maurier creates on the grand scale; she runs through the generations, giving her family unity and reality . . . a rich vein of humor and satire . . . observation, sympathy, courage, a sense of the romantic, are here."-The Observer

In this classic Gothic suspense novel by Daphne du Maurier, a young woman marries a widower and discovers that more than just the memories of his deceased wife linger in their home. Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . . The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady''s maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives--presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave. "Daphne du Maurier created a scale by which modern women can measure their feelings." —Stephen King

As a young guide for Sunshine Tours, Armino Fabbio leads a pleasant, if humdrum life -- until he becomes circumstantially involved in the murder of an old peasant woman in Rome. The woman, he gradually comes to realise, was his family''s beloved servant many years ago, in his native town of Ruffano. He returns to his birthplace, and once there, finds it is haunted by the phantom of his brother, Aldo, shot down in flames in ''43. Over five hundred years before, the sinister Duke Claudio, known as The Falcon, lived his twisted, brutal life, preying on the people of Ruffano. But now it is the twentieth century, and the town seems to have forgotten its violent history. But have things really changed? The parallels between the past and present become ever more evident. "In du Maurier''s fiction, she unflinchingly exposed hard truths."-Times (UK)

A man becomes addicted to a drug that allows him to time travel into the past in this gothic thriller that is "prime du Maurier" ( New York Times). Dick Young is lent a house in Cornwall by his friend Professor Magnus Lane. During his stay he agrees to serve as a guinea pig for a new drug that Magnus has discovered in his scientific research. When Dick samples Magnus''s potion, he finds himself doing the impossible: traveling through time while staying in place, thrown all the way back into Medieval Cornwall. The concoction wears off after several hours, but its effects are intoxicating and Dick cannot resist his newfound powers. As his journeys increase, Dick begins to resent the days he must spend in the modern world, longing ever more fervently to get back into his world of centuries before, and the home of the beautiful Lady Isolda . . . Praise for Daphne Du Maurier: "No other popular writer has so triumphantly defied classification . . . She satisfied all the questionable criteria of popular fiction, and yet satisfied the exacting requirements of "real literature," something very few novelists ever do." ―Margaret Forster, author of Daphne Du Maurier: The Secret Life of the Renowned Storyteller "She wrote exciting plots, she was highly skilled at arousing suspense, and she was, too, a writer of fearless originality" — The Guardian

The story of a deadly curse that afflicted an Irish family for a hundred years from the renowned author of the classic gothic romance, Rebecca . "I tell you your mine will be in ruins and your home destroyed and your children forgotten . . . but this hill will be standing still to confound you." So curses Morty Donovan when Copper John Brodrick builds his mine at Hungry Hill. The Brodricks of Clonmere gain great wealth by harnessing the power of Hungry Hill and extracting the treasure it holds. The Donovans, the original owners of Clonmere Castle, resent the Brodricks'' success, and consider the great house and its surrounding land theirs by rights. For generations the feud between the families has simmered, always threatening to break into violence . . . "As poignant and powerful as du Maurier''s better-known romantic fiction." — Daily Mail "A storyteller of cunning and genius." —Sally Beauman, #1 New York Times -bestselling author "Daphne du Maurier has no rival." — The Sunday Telegraph "Du Maurier is a magician, a virtuoso. She can conjure up tragedy, horror, tension, suspense the ridiculous, the vain, the romantic." — Good Housekeeping

Many accounts of the life of Francis Bacon have been written for scholars. But du Maurier''s aim in this biography was to illuminate the many facets of Bacon''s remarkable personality for the common reader. To her book she brought the same gifts of imagination and perception that made her earlier biography, Golden Lads, so immensely readable, skillfully threading into her narrative extracts from contemporary documents and from Bacon''s own writings, and setting her account of his life within a vivid contemporary framework. "Unlike many authors of popular historical biographies, du Maurier resembled Antonia Fraser in being an indefatigable researcher."-Francis King

A married couple on holiday in Venice are caught up in a sinister series of events. A lonely schoolmaster is impelled to investigate a mysterious American couple. A young woman loses her cool when she confronts her father''s old friend on a lonely island. A party of British pilgrims meet strange phenomena and possible disaster in the Holy Land. A scientist abandons his scruples while trying to tap the energy of the dying mind. Collecting five stories of mystery and slow, creeping horror, Daphne Du Maurier''s Don''t Look Now and Other Stories showcases her unique blend of sympathy and spinetingling suspense. "Daphne du Maurier is in a class by herself."-New York Times

Sir Gerald du Maurier was the preeminent actor-manager of his day, knighted in 1922 for his services to the theater. Published within six months of her father''s death, Daphne du Maurier''s frank portrait was considered shocking by many of his admirers-but it was a huge success, winning her critical acclaim and launching her career. Here, Daphne captures the spirit and charm of the charismatic actor who played the original Captain Hook, amusingly recounting his eccentricities, his humor, as well as his darker side. "A remarkable book...brilliant comic writing."-The Times (UK)

From the bestselling author of Rebecca . "Her peerless craftmanship, her eerie sense of the macabre, her gift for sheer story telling come to full fruition." — Kirkus Reviews In this collection of suspenseful tales in which fantasies, murderous dreams and half-forgotten worlds are exposed, Daphne du Maurier explores the boundaries of reality and imagination. Her characters are caught at those moments when the delicate link between reason and emotion has been stretched to the breaking point. Often chilling, sometimes poignant, these stories display the full range of Daphne du Maurier''s considerable talent. "The appeal of romance and the clash of highly-charged emotions." — New York Herald Tribune "One of the last century''s most original literary talents." — Daily Telegraph "She wrote exciting plots . . . a writer of fearless originality." — The Guardian

The definitive biography of Daphne Du Maurier, one of history''s greatest psychological thriller novelists Rebecca, published in 1938, brought its author instant international acclaim, capturing the popular imagination with its haunting atmosphere of suspense and mystery. Du Maurier was immediately established as the queen of the psychological thriller. But the more fame this and her other books encouraged, the more reclusive Daphne du Maurier became. Margaret Forster''s award-winning biography could hardly be more worthy of its subject. Drawing on private letters and papers, and with the unflinching co-operation of Daphne du Maurier''s family, Margaret Forster explores the secret drama of her life - the stifling relationship with her father, actor-manager Gerald du Maurier; her troubled marriage to war hero and royal aide, ''Boy'' Browning; her wartime love affair; her passion for Cornwall and her deep friendships with the last of her father''s actress loves, Gertrude Lawrence, and with an aristocratic American woman. Most significant of all, Margaret Forster ingeniously strips away the relaxed and charming facade to lay bare the true workings of a complex and emotional character whose passionate and often violent stories mirrored her own fantasy life more than anyone could ever have imagined.

Thirteen stories, some of which have only appeared in magazine form, that Du Maurier wrote when she was just beginning her career. Taken together, the collection demonstrates the growth of her storytelling skills.

A COMING-OF-AGE TALE OF ADVENTURE AND LOVE, FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA ''She wrote exciting plots . . . a writer of fearless originality'' GUARDIAN ''One of the last century''s most original literary talents'' DAILY TELEGRAPH ''Amazingly vivid'' SATURDAY REVIEW The tumult of living, the glory and the pain. The precious intimacy of little things. I wanted so much and so much. Moments away from jumping into the swirling Thames, Dick is saved by a passing stranger with a grin, a quip and a cigarette. With his self-assurance and easy charm - and his honesty about having killed a man - Jake has a strange magnetism, and the two men plunge into an intense friendship. Escaping the oppressive shadow of his poet father, Dick embarks on an adventure of self-discovery through Europe - until he washes up in bohemian Paris, where he resolves to pursue his artistic dreams. But as Jake always warned, no one can stay young forever . . .

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF REBECCA ''A writer of fearless originality'' GUARDIAN ''Du Maurier is in a class by herself'' NEW YORK TIMES ''A landmark book on a much-neglected figure, containing ground-breaking research'' LISA JARDINE A fascinating historical figure, Anthony Bacon was a contemporary of the brilliant band of gallants who clustered round the court of Elizabeth I and he was closely connected with the Queen''s favourite, the Earl of Essex. He also worked as an agent for Sir Francis Walsingham, the Queen''s spymaster, living in France where he became acquainted with Henri IV and the famous essayist Michel de Montaigne. It was in France that du Maurier discovered a secret that, if disclosed during Bacon''s lifetime, could have put an end to his political career . . . Du Maurier did much to shed light on matters that had long puzzled historians. This biography is also a strange and fascinating tale.

Six stories of pathos and terror, in which the weak, the dispossessed and the exploited wreak vengeance on a complacent world. The stories are The Birds (which became a Hitchcock film), The Apple Tree, Kiss Me Again, Stranger, The Little Photographer, The Old Man and Monte Verita.

A complete insight into one of Britain''s most celebrated novelists of our time. Rebecca was one of the great bestsellers. It has been read all around the world, and in many laguages. It has been highly successful as a play, a film, a television serial. Now Daphne Du Maurier reveals, very fascinatingly, how it came to be written: its origins, its development, the directions it might have taken, The original outline of the novel is here, and so is the original Epilogue. Daphne Du Maurier also reveals how she first came upon the secret house hidden away in Cornish woodland, that was to become the romantic setting of Rebecca: a house which stood derelict, and which she lovingly restored to make it her own home.

THE STORY: The setting is a great house in Cornwall, which has been inherited by young Philip Ashley on the death of his uncle and surrogate father. Although deeply attached to his ancestral home, the uncle had gone to Rome, married a young Itali

A political/economic alliance between the United States and England leads to open hostility when Marines land in Cornwall.

The indolent offspring of two famous entertainers use their limited talents to maintain the fantasy world they have created.