The official Daphne du Maurier website, approved by her Estate
"Janet Coombe stood on the hill above Plyn, looking down upon the harbour. Although the sun was already high in the heavens, the little town was still wrapped in an early morning mist. It clung to Plyn like a thin pale blanket, lending to the place a faint whisper of unreality as if the whole had been blessed by the touch of ghostly fingers."
The Loving Spirit, ch. 1, p. 1, William Heinemann Ltd., 1931
Welcome to the Daphne du Maurier website
The Daphne du Maurier website and our social media pages on Instagram, X and Facebook, wish all Daphne du Maurier followers everywhere a happy and healthy New Year. We look forward to bringing you news and interesting facts about Daphne du Maurier, her family, ancestors and associates again during the coming year.
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Books from Daphne du Maurier's canon of work celebrating anniversaries in 2026, plus a few more from Angela du Maurier and George du Maurier
From time to time, as a new year begins, we like to look back at Daphne du Maurier's canon of work and see what in her writing is celebrating an anniversary. We also look at the writing of Daphne's sister, Angela, and her Grandfather, George du Maurier, with the same intention: to seek out books celebrating anniversaries.
To read our article about books celebrating anniversaries in 2026, please go to our interesting facts section, or click on this link: https://www.dumaurier.org/menu_page.php?id=269
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The du Maurier Fowey Literary Festival 2026
***Important news***
Due to circumstances beyond their control, the dates of The du Maurier Fowey Literary Festival 2026 will be slightly different.
Routinely, the festival has always been in the week including Daphne du Maurier’s birthday on 13th May.
In 2026, the festival dates will be one week earlier than usual, and so will be from Friday 1st until Saturday 9th May 2026.
Please
make a note of this in your diaries and book your accommodation early,
as the new dates include a bank holiday, which is likely to mean that
there will be more people in Fowey than usual during Festival week.
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Taylor Swift talks about Daphne du Maurier and her novel Rebecca
Taylor Swift on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Wednesday 10th December 2025
On Wednesday, 10th December, Taylor Swift appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and talked about her love of reading, saying that she also listens to audiobooks constantly. Daphne du Maurier and her most famous novel, Rebecca, were the only author and book that Taylor mentioned in her conversation. She said that Daphne du Maurier’s gothic novel Rebecca was an example of the type of book she really enjoys. To read our news item about this, please click here: https://www.dumaurier.org/news_details.php?id=1371&nc=2
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Maisie Peters new single Say My Name In Your Sleep is loosely based on Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Maisie Peters, CREDIT: Ella Pavlides
British singer-songwriter Maisie Peters has released her new single this week (19th November). It is called ‘Say My Name In Your Sleep’ and is the third single to be released from her soon-to-be-announced album. It is loosely inspired by the Gothic novel ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier. To read more and to see the video on YouTube, please click here: https://www.dumaurier.org/news_details.php?id=1360&nc=2
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Venetian Vespers by John Banville and the influence of Don’t Look Now and two other novellas set in Venice.
John Banville, author of Venetian Vespers
Irish novelist and short story writer John Banville has been nominated for the Booker Prize three times and won it with The Sea in 2005. His new novel, Venetian Vespers, was published on 25th September 2025. To find out more about how Don’t Look Now by Daphne du Maurier and two other novellas set in Venice, influenced John when he was writing Venetian Vespers, go to our News Page here:https://www.dumaurier.org/news_details.php?id=1346&nc=2 where you can read more and follow the link to listen to BBC Radio Four’s programme, Take Four Books, first broadcast on Sunday 12th October 2025, in which John is interviewed about his new book and the three novellas that influenced his writing of it.
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Phoebe Waller-Bridge on what she reads, including Daphne du Maurier
Images of Phoebe Waller-Bridge and her most well known work, Fleabag
Actor and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge is the subject of an article written by Simran Sukhnani for Times Now today, 15th October 2025, and in it, she talks about the short story The Blue Lenses by Daphne du Maurier. To find out more and to link to the whole article, please click here: https://www.dumaurier.org/news_details.php?id=1343&nc=2
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After Midnight: Thirteen Chilling Tales for the Dark Hours
by Daphne du Maurier, published on 30th September 2025
The UK edition of After Midnight
The US edition of After Midnight
There is currently much excitement surrounding the publication of After Midnight: Thirteen Chilling Tales for the Dark Hours, a stunning new hardback collection by Daphne du Maurier, published in the UK and the US on 30th September 2025. To find out more, please click here: https://www.dumaurier.org/news_details.php?id=1326&nc=2
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A Family Memoir about Daphne du Maurier written by her Grandson
Virago has announced that it has acquired the rights to a history of the du Maurier family written by Daphne du Maurier’s grandson.
The Du Mauriers: A Family Portrait by Paul de Zulueta, Daphne du Maurier’s oldest grandson, is a fascinating, intimate, revelatory family memoir. Virago will be publishing it in September 2026.
The book focuses primarily on Daphne du Maurier but also includes a number of key family members, going further back in time to include Mary Anne Clarle, George and Gerald du Maurier and others.
Paul will draw on his own memories of his grandmother as well as private papers and letters, the archive at the University of Exeter, interviews and unpublished photographs.
You can read more, here https://www.dumaurier.org/news_details.php?id=1243&nc=2
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Taylor Swift's five favourite books
Taylor Swift in Concert
It is a well-known fact that Taylor Swift is not only a musical genius but that she also frequently shares how deeply literature influences her songwriting process.
This week (18/11/24), Anushka Bhattacharya has written a piece for Netflix Junkie about Taylor Swift’s favourite books, naming the top 5 life-changing books the singer recommends and that you must not miss.
Here is her list:
To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
The Beautiful and the Damned by F. Scott Fitzgerald
We have to agree that these are five super books, and we are, of course, delighted that Rebecca is second on Taylor’s list.
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Stanley Tucci wearing his Daphne du Maurier t-shirt
Stanley Tucci wearing his Daphne du Maurier t-shirt
From time to time, on the Daphne du Maurier website news pages, we have mentioned the Women's Prize for Fiction and Girls on Top collaboration, which has produced a range of beautiful t-shirts with the names of some of our finest authors on them.
Obviously, the one we love best is the one with Daphne du Maurier's name on it. We particularly like this fabulous picture of Stanley Tucci wearing his. Doesn't he look great!
To find out more about getting your own t-shirt go to https://www.dumaurier.org/news_details.php?id=1121&nc=2.
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Taylor Swift and Phoebe Waller-Bridge - Two Celebrity Fans of Daphne du Maurier’s writing.
Daphne du Maurier’s writing is loved by millions of people right across the world. Her novels and short stories, in particular, never cease to capture people’s imaginations, and once someone has read a piece of du Maurier’s writing, they are inevitably hooked and need to read more. She means so much to such a wide demographic, including many well-known and celebrity figures.
Taylor Swift is one such Daphne du Maurier fan. Her song Tolerate It was inspired by Daphne’s most famous novel, Rebecca. We have discovered a great piece on TikTok from an interview between Taylor Swift and Paul McCartney. She specifically refers to Daphne du Maurier and explains how reading Rebecca inspired her song, Tolerate It.
Taylor Swift
Please click here to watch Taylor Swift talking about Daphne: https://www.tiktok.com/@theswiftiebookclub/video/7254983959988194565
Actor and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge is also a fan of Daphne du Maurier. She is probably most famous for adapting Killing Eve for television and for creating, writing and starring in the dark comedy Flea Bag. In an interview with Far Our Magazine in October 2023, she talked with Aimee Ferrier about her favourite books of all time. Third on her list of thirteen titles was the Daphne du Maurier short story, The Blue Lenses. We are happy to see Daphne du Maurier’s work represented in Phoebe’s list, especially as it is one of Daphne’s less well-known short stories, which suggests to us that Phoebe has read a lot more of Daphne du Maurier’s writing, too.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge
To read more about Phoebe Waller-Bridge and to see all the books on her list, please click here: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/phoebe-waller-bridges-favourite-books-of-all-time
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In early autumn 2023, we revamped the Daphne du Maurier website, changing our home page picture to the iconic image of young Daphne smoking a cigarette in the kitchen at Ferryside. We also changed the colour scheme, and our wonderful technical wizards made clever amendments, making the Daphne du Maurier website much more user-friendly on your phones, something which I know has made life easier for many of you.
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In March 2016 we re-launched the Daphne du Maurier website. We extend thanks to the du Maurier Browning family for its on-going support and John Baxendale for all his work running the site for so many years.
You will find information about Daphne du Maurier's life and work, and her family and associates, on this site. A Forum provides an opportunity for Daphne's readers, followers, admirers, and fans to contribute their views and knowledge, a News Page to keep you up to date with the latest information on people, places, and events connected with Daphne, and much more.
Early in 2020, a new organisation called the Daphne du Maurier Society of North America was formed, with their base in Dallas, Texas. They suggested that we forge links with them, and, with the blessing of the du Maurier Browning family, that is precisely what we did. By joining together, we can promote their events and learn from any discoveries that come about through their meetings. We can also share the knowledge and information that is continually growing on our website. Click here to find out more about them: https://daphnedumauriersociety.org
Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, the great writer and important literary man of Fowey, was often referred to as Q. Some years ago, the Daphne du Maurier website was approached by The Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch Memorial Fund (the Q Fund) asking if we would consider giving him an internet presence. Because of the close links between Daphne du Maurier and Q, we happily agreed to this. So, it was with real pleasure that the du Maurier Browning family and the Daphne du Maurier website welcomed this section to the website dedicated to Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. Just click here to find out more: https://www.dumaurier.org/sirarthurquillercouch.php
We are always interested in including your articles, news, reviews, and snippets of information on the website. So, come on all you Daphne du Maurier and Q followers, make this your website by getting in touch and sharing what you know.
