Daphne Du Maurier - Personal Life

Personal Life

She married in 1932 professional soldier Frederick "Boy" Browning, with whom she had three children:

• Tessa Browning (b. 1933) married Major Peter de Zulueta, whom she divorced; she later married David Montgomery, 2nd Viscount Montgomery of Alamein in 1970.
• Flavia (b. 1937) married Captain Alastair Tower, whom she divorced, before marrying General Sir Peter Leng.
• Christian (b. 1940) became a photographer and film-maker. He married Olive White who was Miss Ireland 1962.

Biographers have noted that the marriage was at times somewhat chilly and that du Maurier could be aloof and distant to her children, especially the girls, when immersed in her writing. "Boy" died in 1965 and soon after Daphne moved to Kilmarth, near Par, which became the setting for The House on the Strand.

Du Maurier has often been painted as a frostily private recluse who rarely mixed in society or gave interviews. An exception to this came after the release of the film A Bridge Too Far, in which her late husband was portrayed in a less-than-flattering light. Du Maurier, incensed, wrote to the national newspapers, decrying what she considered unforgivable treatment. Once out of the glare of the public spotlight, however, many remembered her as a warm and immensely funny person who was a welcoming hostess to guests at Menabilly, the house she leased for many years (from the Rashleigh family) in Cornwall. Letters from Menabilly contains the letters from du Maurier to Oriel Malet over 30 years, with Malet's commentary. (Malet's real name is Auriel Malet Vaughan.)

Daphne du Maurier was a member of the Cornish nationalist pressure group/political party Mebyon Kernow. She was spoofed by her slightly older fellow writer P.G. Wodehouse as "Daphne Dolores Morehead".