Who is Daphne du Maurier, author of Rebecca?

Ben Wheatley’s cinematic adaptation of Rebecca released on Netflix Wednesday, October 21, Based on the bestselling novel written by British author Daphne du Maurier, the film was directed by Ben Wheatley from a screenplay by Jane Goldman, Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse, and Laurie Rose for the cinematography. It is the first major film adaptation of the novel since Alfred Hitchcock’s 1940 version.

Rebecca tells the story of a young woman (Lily James), whose name is never revealed, working as a lady’s companion to a rich American woman, a Mrs. Van Hopper (Ann Dowd), who is on vacation in Monte Carlo. While Mrs. Van Hopper is ill, the young woman makes the acquaintance of a handsome gentleman, Maxim de Winter.

Daphne du Maurier

As reported by The Guardian, Daphne du Maurier was born in 1907, in London, the second of noted theatre actor and manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and his wife, stage actor Muriel Beaumont’s three daughters.

In 1932 she married Frederick Browning, a military man, and they had three children. She continued to live a privileged life, with staff to run her home and look after the children and was proud to be the family breadwinner with the success of her writing

For a long time Daphne du Maurier was described as a romantic novelist.She also wrote historical fiction, several plays, and Vanishing Cornwall (1967), a travel guide. Her popular Rebecca was made into a motion picture in 1940.

She published an autobiography, Growing Pains, in 1977; the collection The Rendezvous and Other Stories in 1980; and a literary reminiscence, The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories, in 1981.