Biografie

Her most famous novel, "Rebecca", was set in a 70-room manor. The manor actually exists and is called Menabilly, on the Cornwall coast in the extreme southwest of England close to Fowey. She had seen it as a child and was so struck by it that she told everyone she would one day move into the estate. In 1943, after she had become a world-famous and best-selling author, she and her husband actually leased Menabilly for 25 years and moved in. Before her husband died, he was able to sign a contract that enabled her to move to Kilmerth close by. Kilmerth inspired her to write the novel "The House on the Strand".

In her 2005 album, "The Beekeeper", Tori Amos wrote the song "Jamaica Inn" as a tribute to her work as a writer, with quotes from her books "Rebecca" and the eponymous "Jamaica Inn".

Second daughter of famed actor-manager Sir Gerald du Maurier and Muriel Beaumont, and younger sister of Angela Du Maurier. She was awarded Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1969 Queen's Honours List for her services to literature.

Granddaughter of author George L. Du Maurier.

Awarded the DBE (Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1969 Queen's Birthday Honours List for her services to literature.