Daphne du Maurier: Letters from Menabilly Portrait of a Friendship

Daphne du Maurier’s correspondence with Oriel Malet began in the early 1950s, after they met at a cocktail party in London. At least twenty years separated them: Oriel was a gauche young writer while Daphne was the famous, much-fêted author of bestselling novels including Jamaica Inn, My Cousin Rachel, and Rebecca.

The friendship flourished for thirty years, fed by the letters that arrived faithfully from Menabilly, the du Maurier house in Cornwall. While Oriel tasted life on a houseboat on ...