In sweeps the US, in the form of “friendly” invading Marines landing on the beaches of Cornwall, and a new superpower, known as USUK, is formed the Cornish people, however, rise up in resistance.ĭu Maurier’s most famous works are probably two of her short stories – however, you’re more likely to recognise their film adaptations. The ensuing chaos – rising prices and high unemployment which leads to social unrest, combined with a breakdown of relations with Europe – resulting in the declaration of a nationwide state of emergency. Perhaps even less well known is the fact that back in 1972, du Maurier wrote a speculative fiction novel that, in a way, predicted Brexit. Rule Britannia is set in a UK that’s joined, and then (following a referendum) leaves the Common Market (the EU’s predecessor, which Britain actually joined the following year in 1973). As well as novels – 16 in total – she also wrote short stories, plays, biographies, a memoir, and books about her beloved Cornwall, where she made her home for many years and where many of her books are set. As the film critic David Thomson acknowledges, “the romance often veers towards something more like horror” – though the latter element is all too often overlooked.Ī prolific writer, du Maurier’s career spanned from the beginning of the 1930s to her death, at the age of 81, in 1989. Michell’s struggle to capture the terror embedded in My Cousin Rachel – and his inability to reach beyond the obvious period drama angle – is indicative of a widespread misreading of du Maurier’s work.
However, all too often she’s dismissed as a writer of benign historical romances. Darkness comes to the fore in her macabre and chilling short stories, but also twists through each of her novels. Are his suspicions justified? Is she guilty or innocent? The reader, like Philip, is never quite sure.ĭu Maurier excelled at evoking a sense of menace. “The Menace,” du Maurier explains in her short story of the same title, “in movie language, and especially among women, means a heart-throb, a lover, someone with wide shoulders and no hips.” It’s a term that, for her, referred to sexual attraction – “being ‘menaced,’” du Maurier’s biographer Margaret Forster explains, “was being attracted by another person.” This take on sexual allure, as something tinged with a frisson of danger and threat, lies at the heart of Philip’s attraction to Rachel: evidence suggests Rachel murdered her husband Ambrose, Philip’s beloved uncle. Missing is the menace of the original, and I use this word thoughtfully.
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