Rebecca (novel) glamorous, dark-haired Jan Ricardo. The suspicion that Tommy remained attracted to Ricardo haunted Daphne." In "The Rebecca Notebook" of 1981, du Maurier "'remembered' Rebecca's gestation … Seeds began to drop. A beautiful home... a first wife... jealousy, a wreck, perhaps at sea, near to the house... But something terrible would have to happen, I did not know what..." She wrote in her notes prior to writing: 'I want to build up the character of the first [wife] in the mind of the second... until wife 2 is haunted day and night... a tragedy is looming very close and CRASH! BANG!
Daphne du Maurier time". In later life, she wrote non-fiction, including several biographies such as "Gerald", her father's biography. "The Glass-Blowers" traces her French Huguenot ancestry and vividly depicts the French Revolution. "The du Mauriers" traces the family's move from France to England in the 19th century. "The House on the Strand" (1969) combines elements of "mental time-travel", a tragic love affair in 14th-century Cornwall, and the dangers of using mind-altering drugs. Her final novel, "Rule Britannia" (1972), satirises resentment of British people in general and Cornish people in particular at the increasing U.S. dominance of Britain's affairs. Du Maurier wrote three plays.