
Daphne du Maurier
Writing
Biography
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, DBE (13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright. Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. Her bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for narrative craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel, and Jamaica Inn, and the short stories The Birds and Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight.
Known For

A one-hour anthology television series of one-off contemporary and classic dramas produced by the BBC.
Playhouse

Story of a young woman who marries a fascinating widower only to find out that she must live in the shadow of his former wife, Rebecca, who died mysteriously several years earlier. The young wife must come to grips with the terrible secret of her handsome, cold husband, Max De Winter. She must also deal with the jealous, obsessed Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, who will not accept her as the mistress of the house.
Rebecca

Thousands of birds flock into a seaside town and terrorize the residents in a series of deadly attacks.
The Birds

After a whirlwind romance with a wealthy widower, a naïve bride moves to his family estate but can't escape the haunting shadow of his late wife.
Rebecca

Set in 1820 against the forbidding backdrop of windswept Cornish moors, the story follows the journey of young and spirited Mary who is forced to live with her Aunt Patience after the death of her mother. Mary arrives at the isolated Jamaica Inn to discover her Aunt is a shell of the carefree woman she remembers from her childhood, and instead finds a drudge who is firmly under the spell of her domineering husband Joss. The Inn has no guests - the rooms are locked and kept for storage - but it soon becomes clear that it’s a cover, as Joss is the leader of a smuggling ring, and Jamaica Inn the hub of his ‘free’ trade.
Jamaica Inn

While grieving a terrible loss, a married couple meet two mysterious sisters, one of whom gives them a message sent from the afterlife.
Don't Look Now

Based on the Gothic romance novel by Daphne Du Maurier, Rebecca is a classic tale of love and hate. Maxim De Winter marries a woman half his age only a year after his first wife, the beautiful and accomplished Rebecca, dies. She finds herself in an aristocratic social world her middle class upbringing did not prepare her for, and housekeeper Mrs Danvers despises her for taking her darling Rebecca's place. But these are not the only problems to face...
Rebecca

A young Englishman plots revenge against his mysterious, beautiful cousin, believing that she murdered his guardian. But his feelings become complicated as he finds himself falling under the beguiling spell of her charms.
My Cousin Rachel

In early 19th-century Cornwall, young Mary Yellan travels to live with her aunt and uncle at the remote Jamaica Inn, where she discovers the inn is a front for a violent gang of wreckers who lure ships to their doom along the coast. As she becomes entangled in their crimes, Mary must fight to survive and uncover the truth behind the terror that haunts the moors.
Jamaica Inn

Rebecca is a four-part British television miniseries dramatised by Hugh Whitemore, adapted from Daphne du Maurier's eponymous 1938 mystery novel (which had famously been interpreted to film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1940). A naive young woman marries a wealthy widower, but grows haunted by his late wife's legacy and the sinister housekeeper's obsession with the deceased Rebecca.
Rebecca

In 1952, as England prepares for the coronation, two very different men have one thing in common—a face.
The Scapegoat

In the early 1800s, Mary Yellan's life is changed after her father is murdered by shipwreckers. When her mother dies of a broken heart not long afterwards, Mary is forced to go live with her Aunt Patience at her inn on Bodmin Moor. It's there that she discovers her slightly mad Uncle Joss is the wreckers' ringleader and that Jamaica Inn is their headquarters. Mary is determined to bring Joss and his gang to justice and calls upon Joss' younger brother Jem to help.
Jamaica Inn

A young man plots revenge against the woman he believes murdered his cousin, but his plans are shaken when he comes face to face with the enigmatic beauty.
My Cousin Rachel

Pilot for a proposed television anthology series with stories about love, either dramatic or comedic. In this pilot, there were three different segments: in the first, a computer falls in love with its programmer; in the second, a World War II vet falls in love with a murderer; in the third, a woman falls in love with a penniless painter.
Rex Harrison Presents Stories of Love

Ted and his family have just moved to the sleepy coastal town of Gull Island so that he can complete work on his thesis. Everything couldn’t seem more picturesque about their new, seaside home… that is, except for the increasing number of aggressively behaving birds.
The Birds II: Land's End

An Englishman in France unwittingly is placed into the identity, and steps into the vacated life, of a look-alike French nobleman.
The Scapegoat

The respected squire of a quiet Cornish village is in reality the leader of a gang of murderous pirates who attack passing ships, kill their crews and steal their cargoes.
Jamaica Inn

An English lady falls in love with a French pirate after he kidnaps her from her ancestral home on the coast of Cornwall and sweeps her off her feet into a world of adventure.
Frenchman's Creek

Seeking to escape the stifling London court society, the beautiful headstrong Lady Dona St. Columb flees to her family estate on the Cornish coast. Her new freedom swiftly brings her into contact with the dashingly handsome French privateer Jean Aubrey who sweeps her off her feet and into a world of adventure on the high seas very different from her dull and boring life at court with her husband Sir Harry. Together with Jean Aubrey and her enigmatic servant William, Lady Dona conceives a daring plan to steal a ship right from under the noses of the English authorities. The theft enrages the authorities who make every effort to trap the French Pirate. However, as the noose begins to tighten around the lovers, Lady Dona is faced with the dilemma of duty and children with Sir Harry or freedom and excitement with Jean Aubrey
Frenchman's Creek

Life becomes a tragedy for the wife of an Irish heir to a 19th-century family feud and fortune.