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.

Lucy Berens
I'll Never Be Young Again

Hesta was still lying on the bed. She was staring up at the balloon that hung from the ceiling in the corner of the room. It did not seem to move at all. I chucked her a cigarette, but she did not take it. I wished she would not look so young. She had never looked so young as this. I went on gazing out of the window and smoking my cigarette. I kept my eyes fixed on the tiles of the roof, and it seemed to me that, suddenly, out of nowhere, born from a thought, I saw Jake's face looking at me, and we were in a circus tent, with the hot air about us, and the crowd swarming against the ropes. Jake - looking down at me.
It was something of horror, something of fear, and then it was gone.
Hesta was sitting up now, pulling at her dress. Why did she have to look so young? I did not know what to do, I did not know what to say. She glanced up at me, and smiled, and she seemed a child, with a child's smile. I wondered whether she expected me to sit beside her, and take her in my arms, and kiss her. If only she would not look like that. If only she were different. The orange béret lay at her feet.
The rain kept on all the time. Hesta looked up at me, waiting for me to be the first to speak, waiting for me to do something, to say something, as though in some strange way she asked for comfort. I did not know what to do.
I threw away my cigarette. 'Oh! hell!' I said, 'let's go out and get bloody drunk…'
I'll Never Be Young Again, Part 2: Hesta, Ch.4, p.211, Virago (2005).

I'll Never Be Young Again was the first D du M novel that I ever read. I was nineteen and it made me long to visit Paris. I loved her descriptions of the city, the street life and the student bars. It was a magical time for me; I wanted to be Hesta and wear an orange béret and meet the man of my dreams! Sad to say, they had bérets in all the colours of the rainbow but nothing in orange, and my man did not show up until five years later in a windswept Aberdeen! Now, perhaps I too can hear a bird singing from a long way off. He seems to be saying.
'I'll never be young again- I'll never be young again.' Lucy Berens.

Collin Langley
I'll Never Be Young Again

I could see the mountains reflected in the water. There would be no shadows even when the sun was gone, and no sound. The light on the water would be the same, night and day. I could imagine there would be no birds here to sing. They would be afraid of the sound of their own voices. It was beautiful, but it was too big for me and too remote.
I'll Never Be Young Again, Ch.6, p.64, Virago (2005).

Kits Browning's choice from Vanishing Cornwall evokes Daphne's feelings towards Norwegian fjords expressed by Dick in I'll Never Be Young Again, a description I find haunting. Collin Langley