The King's General The King's General The King's General is a novel, published in 1946, by English author and playwright Daphne du Maurier. It was the first novel Du Maurier wrote while living at Menabilly, the setting for an earlier novel "Rebecca", where it is called 'Manderley'. The writing of the novel was accompanied by prolific research, in which Du Maurier was assisted by Oenone Rashleigh and historian A. L. Rowse, to ensure the historical accuracy of her presentation of the Devon/Cornwall setting at the time of the Civil War. The historical precision and accuracy made it popular among local people, but the
Daphne du Maurier novel "Mary Anne" (1954) is a fictionalised account of her great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke née Thompson (1776–1852), who, from 1803–08, was mistress of Frederick Augustus, Duke of York and Albany (1763–1827). He was the "Grand Old Duke of York" of the nursery rhyme, a son of King George III, and brother of King George IV and King William IV. The central character of her last novel, "Rule Britannia", is an aging actress, thought to be based on Gladys Cooper (to whom it is dedicated). Du Maurier's short stories are darker: "The Birds", "Don't Look Now", "The Apple Tree", and "The