Daphne du Maurier

[Margaret]

Fascinating article! I've put The Loving Spirit and The Progress of Julius on my TBR.

Du Maurier also wrote some wonderfully atmospheric novels which verge on historical romance/romantic suspense, but are more complex and without the pat happy endings of the genre. Jamaica Inn is the one I especially remember.

[Margaret]

We must have been posting simultaneously, Lil. Do haul out Jamaica Inn and put it near the top of your stack. It's a quick read and full of atmosphere.

[Carla]

Originally Posted by Margaret

We must have been posting simultaneously, Lil. Do haul out Jamaica Inn and put it near the top of your stack. It's a quick read and full of atmosphere.

Seconded! I am a great fan of Daphne du Maurier, and Jamaica Inn is probably my favourite if I had to choose. I haven't reviewed many of her novels because it feels a bit presumptuous on my part. I wrote a review of House on the Strand a while back. If I can find it, I'll post it.

[Misfit]

Originally Posted by Margaret

We must have been posting simultaneously, Lil. Do haul out Jamaica Inn and put it near the top of your stack. It's a quick read and full of atmosphere.

How's about we try to get a theme for the next BOTM vote so we can add Jamaica Inn to the list?

[diamondlil]

What theme would you like? Books about pubs with Carribean island names in their titles?

[Misfit]

Originally Posted by diamondlil

What theme would you like? Books about pubs with Carribean island names in their titles?

Nah, that would probably just get us a book on tropical cocktails

Romantic suspense?
Gothic and spooky?
Or how's about a D du M theme?

[diamondlil]

LOL!

You know a book on tropical cocktails may be just what I need to read at the moment to assist with getting out of my reading slump!

[Vanessa]

Could be a pirate or smuggling theme!?

DduM is well known for her ambigous endings!

[Margaret]

Or a 19th century Cornwall theme? Or Cornwall/Wales/Scotland/Ireland if Cornwall is too restrictive? Or settings on the coast? Does anyone remember the movie about the narwhal horn that washed up on a Cornish beach - it was a great movie, and I think it was based on a novel.

[annis]

Is that "When the Whales Came", with Helen Mirren, Margaret? I really liked that one.

Synopsis:
<t’s set around World War I on the Scilly Isles, off the coast of Cornwall, on an island where the inhabitants largely survive by scavenging from whatever the sea throws up on the beach. Two children, Daniel and Gracie (Rennie and Pearce), befriend a reclusive old man (Scofield), whom the rest of the local treat with a mix of fear, suspicion and derision, because of his trips to the cursed, now-deserted nearby islet of Samson. He’s known as “The Birdman, because he carves exquisite birds out of driftwood. That’s what attracts Daniel, who wants to learn the art partly as an escape valve from his abusive father. Gracie has no father at all, since he went off to join the navy, so she’s being brought up by her struggling mother (Mirren).

An ill-fated fishing expedition by the kids lands them on Samson, where they find a narwhal tusk over the fireplace in one of the abandoned houses. Back on their own land, they find some locals suspect the Birdman of being a German spy, because of the beacon fires he sets, and set out to make him pay. However, he is more pre-occupied with a narwhal which has beached itself on the shore, and tells Gracie and Daniel it must be returned to the sea, before it brings the rest of its pod ashore behind it - an act that would bring doom to this island, as it did to Samson. Which is where the mob of villagers comes in.>