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
Monte Verità used to house sun-bathers at the Sanatorium; and a building housing the panoramic painting "The Clear World of the Blessed", by Elisar von Kupffer. The hill is also the site of a tea garden and Japanese teahouse. A fictionalized version of the colony at Monte Verità is the subject of a short story named "Monte Verità" by the Cornish author Daphne du Maurier which appeared in "The Apple Tree" published in 1952, and then republished under the name "The Birds and Other Stories". A.S. Byatt's 2009 novel "The Children's Book" mentions the colony, as does Robert Dessaix's 1996 novel "Night