Sunday, 10 December 2017



So irritated by this silly, gushing biography of Daphne du Maurier, translated from the French which doesn't help. (It's kippers for breakfast, not smoked herring!)
It's not just the breathless, novelette-ish style but lazy inaccuracies that even a bit of Google-research would have corrected: you won't find Keats's house in Primrose Hill and I don't think that the Brontës thought of themselves as daughters of a Presbyterian parsonage.
Lots of hissing and harrumphing from me ...
And then I started watching The Crown and caught the Queen cutting into a scone with a knife ...
My dears, I nearly passed out. She'll be drinking out of the milk bottle next!
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10 comments:

  1. Vintage Reading10 December 2017 at 23:51

    I almost picked this up in Waterstones, but I had my reservations. I still think we need a definitive biography of DDM.

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  2. mary11 December 2017 at 00:01

    You made the right call, Nicola. I'm sure DDM would repay a more rigorous biographer - this one sounds like a fan with a girl-crush.

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  3. Anbolyn12 December 2017 at 02:04

    I have tried to read this several times and just can't bear it. Too much like a novel and not enough facts for me.
    Okay, educate this American - why is it shocking that the queen cut into her scone with a knife?

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  4. mary12 December 2017 at 02:46

    You never cut scones, you break them apart, Anbolyn. Though I don't suppose anyone would dare correct the Queen's table manners!
    You're so right. The book is unbearable. Only a library book, fortunately.

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  5. Anonymous12 December 2017 at 13:24

    What a shame you didn't like it. I read it in French over the summer and enjoyed every page. It set me off on a reread of Daphne's best, and we even caught the release of 'My cousin Rachel' on a whistle stop trip to Paris. It certainly didn't come across as a 'fan with a girl crush' in my opinion.

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  6. Vronni's Style Meanderings12 December 2017 at 18:55

    I've read two biographies of D du M and this won't be the third. It sounds awful...

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  7. Vronni's Style Meanderings12 December 2017 at 18:56

    I've read two biographies of D du M and this won't be the third. It sounds awful...

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  8. Mary12 December 2017 at 19:16

    Two's probably enough, Veronica! You won't learn anything new from this one. Much better to go back and re-read the novels. I'd love to read Frenchman's Creek again - but maybe I read it at the right age, about 13. Would be so sad not to enjoy it as much again.

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  9. Between Life and Dreaming22 December 2017 at 23:59

    I gave up about 20 pages in. It was Not Good. Perhaps it lost something in translation?

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  10. Mary23 December 2017 at 00:05

    That would be a charitable way of looking at it!

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