We hope the example of Daphne's family will encourage you to post on this webpage your favourite lines other than the universally well-loved opening to Rebecca. Perhaps you'll be inspired to re-read her books and discover other lines with a special meaning for you.

Virago Press has published almost thirty of Daphne's books in paperback with a delightful hardback edition of Vanishing Cornwall. These have introductions by established authors, some of whom have presented at our Festival and submitted their own favourite lines below.

If you have already REGISTERED as a Member, please use the SUBMIT form to send your favourite lines to us, where they will be reviewed by Ann Willmore.

"Your Favourite Lines" is based on an original idea by Collin Langley.

Bob Tucker
The Flight of the Falcon

Someone was playing the piano... My lips framed a silent echo to the sound as it rose and fell, half gay, half sad, a timeless melody. Debussy. Yes, Debussy. The well-worn 'Arabesque,' but with a master touch. I stood beneath the wall and listened. The music ebbed and flowed, changed mood and entered the more solemn phrases, and then again that first light-hearted ripple, higher, ever higher, confident and gay, but at last with a descending scale, dissolving, vanishing. It seemed to say: All over, nevermore. The innocence of youth, the joy of childhood, leaping from bed to welcome a new day…all gone, the fervour spent. The repetition of the phrase was only a reminder, an echo of what had been. So swift to go, impossible to hold.
The Flight of the Falcon, Ch.5, p.56/7, Virago (2005).

I enjoy the way Daphne makes the scene come to life so vividly. You actually feel as if you are there as the narrator (Fabbio) and as if you can hear Signora Butali playing Debussy's Première Arabesque. To find such enchanting music in such an austere place, a walled city, makes the setting come alive more than usual in literature. I guess it reminds me of Proust's 'little phrase' in Remembrance of Things Past, which makes that music so real, something you can really get excited about. Daphne's book is one my father enjoyed and recommended before he passed away, which makes that book more special for me, even as my mother loved The Glass Blowers. I remember I had just finished reading The Flight of The Falcon and met a co-worker friend at a reception, who asked me if I'd read anything good lately? When I told him about Falcon he said he had just returned from a month's stay in Urbino and had much enjoyed his time there. Bob Tucker (US).

Debussy's Arabesque is a very light melody, dreamy and in the impressionistic mode of the time (Paris: 1888). There are many changes of mood, sometimes passionate, sometime gentle, exciting at times, calming at others. The tempo varies with different moods. It creates images of a sunny day in spring, a quiet walk in the park. Daphne learned the piece when being taught to play piano. Little wonder it was one of her favorites. Letters from Menabilly, Portrait of a Friendship, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, (1993), p168. CL.

Kim Travell
The Flight of the Falcon

I passed the ducal palace ... I wanted to look at my old home…I could see the windows of the first floor, opened. This had been my parents' bedroom... Someone was playing the piano... A torrent of sound rippled from the keys. It was something I knew... My lips framed a silent echo to the sound as it rose and fell, half gay, half sad, timeless melody. Debussy. Yes, Debussy. The well-worn 'Arabesque', but with a master touch.

…The music ebbed and flowed, changed mood and entered the more solemn phrases, and then again that first light-hearted ripple, higher, even higher, confident and gay, but at last with a descending scale, dissolving, vanishing. It seemed to say: All over, nevermore. The innocence of youth, the joy of childhood, leaping from bed to welcome a new day... all gone, the fervour spent. The repetition of the phrase was only a reminder, an echo of what had been. So swift to go, impossible to hold.
The Flight of the Falcon, Ch.5, p.56/57, Virago (2005).

Kim Travell co-presented 'The Mystery of Daphne's Music' at the 2008 Festival. CL.