Daphne du Maurier Daphne du Maurier Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright. Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. Her bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for narrative craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels "Rebecca", "My Cousin Rachel", and "Jamaica Inn", and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight". Du Maurier spent much of
George du Maurier Illustrated Times", "The Cornhill Magazine", and the religious periodical Good Words. Furthermore, he did illustrations for the serialization of Charles Warren Adams's "The Notting Hill Mystery", which is thought to be the first detective story of novel length to have appeared in English. Among several other novels he illustrated was "Misunderstood" by Florence Montgomery in 1873. Owing to his deteriorating eyesight, du Maurier reduced his involvement with "Punch" in 1891 and settled in Hampstead, where he wrote three novels. His first, "Peter Ibbetson", was a modest success at the time and later adapted to stage and screen, most notably in