Hello and welcome to the fourth #DDMreadingweek. It is that time of year again, which means that later this week, it will be Daphne’s (and my) birthday. That’s on Friday, when Daphne would have been 115 years old, I will be considerably younger.
I won’t be posting everyday – but I hope to get three book reviews up this week. Full disclosure: at the time of writing I have read two books, started the third and am behind on my review writing – so it’s possible review number three might be late. Anyway, I hope that won’t matter too much, as I know there are other DDM fans taking part this week, and I am so looking forward to seeing what everyone reads. As in previous years, there will be a dedicated page here on my blog – where I will be sharing other reader’s links to reviews. A way of finding great recommendations and maybe discovering new blogs to follow.
How to join in
- You don’t need to be a blogger
- Read a DDM novel, short story, story collection, or biography.
- Tell us what you are reading on Twitter, or Instagram using the hashtag.
- Share photos of your DDM read or your DDM books using the hashtag on Twitter or Instagram – (I am a bit rubbish at Instagram, but I keep trying.)
- Post your thoughts about the book you have read on Goodreads – and share the link to that on my blog or on Twitter – use the hashtag so I don’t miss it.
- Post comments/links on my blog, or on the blog posts of others.
Giveaway – UK only, due to postage costs, sorry int’l readers.
I seem to remember I did a giveaway on the first #DDMreadingweek – and haven’t done one since.
There are two prizes – a first prize that I have provided, and a second prize provided very kindly by Virago – which will be sent out by them. I will enter everyone for both prizes – and on Sunday do two random name draws, the first name drawn will win the first prize, the second name drawn will win the second prize.
For the first prize I went shopping, I hope you all don’t mind that I chose the prize myself.
First Prize – VMC designer hardback and matching mug – Rebecca
I decided to offer a special copy of my favourite DDM novel Rebecca and the matching VMC mug. I already had this edition of the book and this mug, so there was no danger of me deciding to keep it for myself. These vmc designer edition hardbacks are delightful, such a pleasure to hold, and read. Every year I am so tempted to reread Rebecca – I loved it so much both times I read it. However, there are still DDM’s I haven’t read for the first time. As for the mugs, I have the full set. So, whether you have never read Rebecca before – or you rather fancy a beautiful new edition of an old favourite I hope I can tempt a few of you with this prize.
Second Prize – Poster – with thanks to Virago
Virago are offering a lovely, professionally printed cover image from The Birds – which will make a lovely poster. I can just imagine that striking image in a frame on the wall next to someone’s bookcase. Unfortunately, I don’t have an image of the poster to show you, but if you know what that cover looks like you will get the idea.
To enter the draw for either prize – simply pop a comment below telling me how/when you first discovered Daphne du Maurier and why you love her writing.
Winners will be contacted by email or Twitter DM. The First Prize will be sent out by me within two weeks of the draw. The winner of the second prize will have their name and address sent to Virago who will send out the prize, if you’re entering the draw then I assume you are consenting to me sharing those details with Virago should you win.
heavenali 
Hooray! I’d hoped to squeeze in a novel but a novella a day has taken over. But I’m going to post on a short story for sure. Really looking forward to the week and seeing all the posts. Thank you for hosting Ali.
Look forward to hearing about the story you read.
I love this! First discovered DDM on a rainy family caravan holiday aged about 14. I had picked ‘Rebecca’ up from the library pre holiday, and as soon as I opened it I was transported to Manderley! Later in life, I discovered her short stories. I was so thrilled to read The Birds and was blown away by it and how far superior to Hitchcock’s weird mansplained movie DDM’s original short story is. She remains my hero x
That’s a lovely story, Daphne du Maurier really does transport the reader.
Thank you Kate for this description of the Hitchcock movie, you made me laugh – saw the film far too young and found it so disturbing. I think Daphne is just hard to film, her glorious melodrama must be tricky to get right. Much better on the page, perhaps because her descriptions are so vivid – though we all have our favourites and I do have a soft spot for the original Rebecca film.
First Daphne: Rebecca – and I’m so glad to have read her as a teenager; when I had lots of time to read (the seventies) and raced uncritically through all my older relatives’ bookshelves. My father gave me her books. According to my Grandmother, Daphne took my dad out as a small boy in a little rowing boat at Fowey in around 1930. She tucked him under her arm to wade back to the shore, brightly dressed and looking like a pirate.
That’s a wonderful story, what a lucky boy, your dad was.
I am looking forward to picking up a du Maurier book for the first time in many, many months!
Excellent, hope you enjoy your reading.
As always I’m running behind schedule, but I hope to have both my planned DDMs reviewed later in the week (fingers crossed). Thanks for hosting Ali!
Don’t worry, I look forward to seeing your posts.
I discovered Du Maurier in my early 20s and was bowled over by her writing style, as well as by the way she always surprises you in her plot developments. I became addicted and read all I could find.
I was probably that sort of age when I first read Rebecca, Jamaica Inn and Frenchman’s Creek.
I was looking to see what I had that might also work for novellas in May, so am hoping to get to The Rebecca Notebook 🙂
That’s a fantastic choice, it’s definitely on my list for another year.
Being Cornish I have always loved Daphne’s novels.
One just has to walk along Frenchman’s creek to see how she was inspired to write such wonderful books.
I recently stayed at Jamaica Inn ( which was the first book I read ) on a misty day in February, it was very atmospheric, one could just imagine hearing the cart wheels go by.
Currently rereading The King’s General.
Her writing style just draws you into the story.🙂
Wonderful, Jamaica Inn is so atmospheric! I drove past the Inn when on holiday once years ago . Hope you enjoy The King’s General.
The King’s General! My favorite! Richard–the guy you hate to love, but must!
Reviewed on goodreads.
Such lovely prizes, Ali – many thanks for the opportunity to enter the draw. I think my route into du Maurier’s fiction came via Hitchcock’s film of Rebecca and Nicolas Roeg’s adaptation of Don’t Look Now, which remains a favourite. As others have said, her novels and stories are so atmospheric – I love how unsettling they are as you never quite know where you’ll end up…
Have fun with your celebration of all things DDM this week, I’m looking forward to reading your reviews!
She is so good at unsettling the reader, and you’re right, we never quite know where we will end up.
Thanks again for hosting this! I really looked forward to it this year. I listened to Frenchman’s Creek on my commute last week. Wonderful book! Here’s a link to my review: https://hopewellslibraryoflife.wordpress.com/2022/05/09/review-frenchmans-creek-by-daphne-du-maurier/
Thank you, I will add your review to the event page later.
I do have a copy of Rebecca, but it’s one of those ugly film tie-ins (or TV series, I believe, in that case), so I am very tempted by that beautiful cover and matching mug set. I saw the Hitchcock film version of Rebecca when I was a child and was scared stiff of Mrs Danvers. I loved the book so much that I then drew little floorplans of Manderley, as well as Rebecca’s dresses, based on the descriptions in the books. It was also the book that first introduced me to rhododendrons, which I then got to see in person when I came to England. I next read Jamaica Inn and My Cousin Rachel, both of which I loved, and then several short stories – there was one in particular that really stuck with me, because it was the first time I became aware of the IRA ‘A Border-Line Case’. So yes, she was a staunch favourite and companion of my teenage years and the book I look forward to reading (although I might be late for this week) is Rule Britannia, which I haven’t read.
Ooh yes those film tie in books, no one likes them! Mrs Danvers still gives me the creeps. I really liked Rule Bitsnnia, it’s definitely an odd one is some ways, very anti American.
I remember borrowing Jamaica Inn from my local public library many, many years ago and it absolutely terrified me. I’d never felt fear before when reading. You don’t forget things like that!
It’s such a memorable novel. Wonderfully atmospheric and unputdownable.
Hmm I can’t remember when I first discovered DDM but I was probably in my late teens/early twenties 25-30 years ago. Rebecca was my first read and the only one I have since reread. I love the variety of her writing and the fact that I read Rebecca very differently 25 years apart but loved it both times. Only just found #ddmreadingweek and hope to Join in.
So glad you have found ddm reading week. I think Rebecca is a very special book.
How incredibly generous, thank you even if I don’t win! I probably came to DDM through the film of Rebecca and then read it and nothing by her again until last year and encouragement through your DDM week, when I discovered her short stories as well as Fisherman’s Creek. Now my nieces are given her books as presents and I need to keep reading her. BTW my daughter is holding a symposium on Rebecca at Sussex University on May 27th, it’s free and will be on line.
Delighted that we encouraged you back to DDM last year. Thanks for telling me about the symposium.
Good luck with the reading week, Ali! I have a couple of possible DDMs but it’s whether I can get to them in time. I do hope you have a successful event though and I shall watch all the reviews with interest. Your giveaway is most generous (but I would say don’t enter me since I am drowning in books) and I hope the winners will be very happy!
Thank you. Finding time for reading events is always a problem, there are so many, we can’t join them all.
So good to see this event once more Ali. Wish I could join in but because of some family health issues my reading has taken a back seat. I love the matching edition and mug (though I’m not looking to enter the giveaway). Where did you buy them and are they still available?
That’s perfectly understandable. I bought the mug from Amazon, don’t know if there’s any left, when I bought it, it was showing 2 left. I bought the book from the Virago shop on their website.
I first discovered Daphne du Maurier one bland, unmemorable Saturday as a teenager when my mum said I really ought to watch the Olivier/Fontaine film of ‘Rebecca’ that was on television that afternoon.
My mum wasn’t at all bossy or controlling about my sentimental or literary education. But I watched it and I was drawn by the sense of place, of Cornwall and the big house by the sea, the delightfully elegant-sounding Manderley and the tortured romance of the new Mrs de Winter and Maxim with brooding deep, dark mysteries afoot.
I was dismayed when I read the book and discovered the ‘softened’ ending for the American audience!
I have been visiting Fowey for over 20 years and get all Daphne-d imagining myself following in her footsteps on the clifftops and I have a secret viewing spot of a façade of Menabilly.
Admittedly I have sometimes started one of her novels and been dubious about the plot. But invariably I am hooked! As well as her compelling plots I love the way she uses conversation to move events along with powerful panache – true to her theatrical heritage!
The life and writings of Daphne du Maurier is a sturdy and stimulating part of my own life.
So many of us discover Rebecca when we’re young I think.she does sometimes require us to suspend our disbelief, but her stories really draw you in.
I haven’t read that much of hers, only Frenchman’s Creek and The Birds and Other Stories. Those short stories did whet my appetite for more of her books.
Oh yes, her short stories are fantastic. You have lots of good things to look forward to .
I remember my mother telling me about Rebecca and how the heroine did not have a name – I think I was a teen. I went to the library the next day and checked it out! I am excited to make my first trip to Cornwall this summer after many years of being a fan.
Ooh wonderful enjoy Cornwall, it is a special place. I was last down there for a few days in 2019.
Hi Ali, thanks for hosting this excellent project once again. It is thanks to you that I have become a DDM fan, through these reading weeks. I love how the reader gets gradually and inexorably drawn in to her stories – you feel under DDM’s spell and cannot look away! This year I have really enjoyed reading your recommended collection of short stories, mentioned on Goodreads here https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4721593122 And also on Instagram and Twitter.
So glad you have enjoyed those short stories I think they’re brilliant.
[…] – Helen of She Reads Novels chose The Rebecca Notebook: And Other Memories for this year’s Daphne du Maurier Reading Week – a book of occasional non-fiction pieces she describes as “interesting and insightful.” The […]
I would have been a young teenager when I first started reading Daphne du Maurier, and I well remember being swept away by the romance of her books, both in terms of the relationships involved and the beautiful settings. I recall The House on the Strand being a particular favourite, though I would have been older when that was published. Time to re-read, me thinks.
I think a lot of us found Daphne as teenagers. I remember being absolutely swept away by Frenchman’s Creek at that time. I am sure she stands up to re-reading.
You may or may not be aware that it’s your fault that I’m reading and LOVING Jamaica Inn at the moment 😂 I stayed at the Jamaica Inn 20 odd years ago, bought the book, started it, then stopped 😳 why did I do that?? I’ve no idea because wow wow wow!! Anyway, that was how I discovered her and your marvellous hashtag caught my eye!! 👏🏻
And I very glad to bear the responsibility. So glad you’re enjoying Jamaica Inn.
[…] short and vague reviews because I wanted to take part in Daphne du Maurier Reading Week, hosted by HeavenAli and it ends tomorrow. Not After Midnight and The Way of the Cross are both set during holidays […]
Ali, I tried to leave a comment yesterday with a link to my review of Rebecca, which I posted yesterday. I included a link to my post. But the comment did not show up. Sometimes that happens to me on WordPress blogs.
I am hoping you can find my post at my blog Bitter Tea and Mystery, and include it on your Daphne du Maurier Reading Week page.
Thanks, TracyK at Bitter Tea and Mystery
Sorry you had problems posting. I found your post, thank you and have added it to the event page.
Thanks very much, now I have to check out the posts I haven’t read yet. I have now purchased Jamaica Inn and Don’t Look Now.
Sorry I’m coming to the party so late – as you know, I thoroughly enjoyed The Scapegoat – thank you for lending it to me and confirming it was one I would like. I’m now enjoying looking through all the reviews and picking my books for next year and ongoing years. And I would never have read DDM without your Weeks, so thank you again!
It’s been a great week. So delighted you enjoyed The Scapegoat. Glad it was me who introduced you to DDM.