Rose Tremain – författare

Daphne du Maurier stole my life

Bestselling author Rose Tremain invents the story of how a great novel of the past came into being and in turn creates a masterwork of her own . . .

An absolute masterclass CLAIRE LYNCH

Mrs Danowski known as Danni is the housekeeper of a grand mansion on the wild coast of Cornwall. When glamorous young writer Daphne du Maurier visits Manderville Hall to research her new novel, she and Danni are drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair.

For Danni, it is an all-consuming love; for Daphne a submission to long-suppressed desires. But their fragile secret is vulnerable to prying eyes and destined for heartbreak. When Daphne s novel launches to triumphant success, Danni is distraught to find herself transformed into a malign and jealous character on the page. She seeks respite from the hurt by telling her own story: The Housekeeper.

A sweeping, atmospheric story of forbidden love, power and privilege ERIN KELLY

Exquisitely drawn, poignant and devastating STACEY HALLS

In this enthralling novelalready in production as a major movie starring Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Catriona Balph and Emma Laird the award-winning author of Absolutely & Forever and The Road Home brilliantly reimagines Daphne du Maurier, and the origins of her timeless bestseller Rebecca. This daring and emotional tale of an illicit affair is narrated by a Mrs. Danowski, known as Danni, who is hired as housekeeper at Manderville Hall, Lord Grenville-Whithers' mansion on the wild coast of Cornwall. A loyal and lonely woman troubled by childhood memories of alienation, Danni dreams of finding love.Those dreams are fulfilled when Daphne du Maurier arrives at Manderville Hall for lunch with Grenville-Whithers. Succumbing to her secret sexual desire for women, Daphne begins a love affair with Danni, meeting on the housekeeper's days off in the secluded boathouse at Manderville Cove. For both women, this forbidden passion is both beautiful and terrifying.But of course such a love cannot lastand both Danni and Daphne must deal with the aftermath of their passion. While Danni struggles to find a new place in the world, Daphne reconfigures the experience into her most famous work, Rebecca, with surprising results.

Rose Tremain's fiction often finds itself drawn into the "wide skies and watery byways of East Anglia". The short stories gathered in Wildtrack, selected from her collections published over three decades, convey the sense of isolation, darkness and secrecy the region fosters: a sense that has long fired Tremain's imagination.

At first sight, these four stories might seem to have little in common apart from their East Anglian settings. But some of the protagonists also share a feeling of anxiety that there is something wrong or missing in their lives which they must confront. The title story, Wildtrack, and Peerless both tackle the question of how we find meaning in a secular life, while in A Shooting Season, the main character believes she has found a safe haven, free from intervention of any kind – but then The Past makes an appearance.