Daphne Du Maurier â€å“i Will Never Be Young Againã¢â‚¬â

It was Daphne Du Maurier's writing that lured me to Cornwall. She would, no doubt be furious to read this as she loathed the way her dearest West Land was succumbing to tourism during her lifetime. Yet she'southward still bringing in the hordes she so disliked. And new television adaptation of Jamaica Inn, to be screened on BBC1 on Easter Mon, merely reminds us how exciting Cornwall's moors tin be – even if they no longer firm immature girls stuck in sinister pubs with murderous landlords like the novel's terrifying uncle Joss.

I visited Jamaica Inn on my Cornwall bout, merely in deference to a writer of fantastical and convoluted plots, I headed showtime to Fowey, where in 1926, the Du Maurier family bought a business firm and changed its proper name from Swiss Cottage, which had unfortunate associations with the London Underground, to Ferryside. Just before Fowey, I passed a sign to Menabilly, which was du Maurier'due south home for 25 years from 1943, and provided the model for Manderley in Rebecca, and a major presence in other novels, too. She called it 'a precious stone in the hollow of a hand', only we must take her word for that, since the house is neither open up to the public nor visible from the sea. Just never mind. Fowey is a riverside boondocks so picturesque that information technology provided an excellent foil for a night imagination.

"I must get downwards to Fowey. Fowey would be my salvation," wrote du Maurier of her twentysomething self, jaded with London club and desperate to write – and fish, and sail – in peace". I took the Fowey ferry on a sparkling sunny twenty-four hour period in March, floating past storm damage – bent tree trunks, rockfaces river-stained far in a higher place the loftier-h2o mark – and the eerily powdered copse around the china dirt loading bay. This powdering of the mural was worse in Du Maurier's time – she writes of a bay with 'all the froth and dazzle of a milk churn'. Her attitude is typically boisterous: 'tourists may seek the golden sands of holiday brochures… but to swim in such a sea is ecstasy – I have tried it, and I know!'

Jamaica Inn provided the setting for Daphne Du Maurier's eponymous novel. Photo: Alamy

"She always had this matter that places were more important than people," her son Kits Browning has said, so no wonder her books turned out to exist catnip for tourists. However her friendships were as durable as stone. In the Fowey Hotel, its corridor lined with letters past Kenneth 'Air current in the Willows' Grahame, I eat a generous afternoon tea, just as Du Maurier used to practise with Sir Arthur Quiller-Burrow, the Cambridge Professor and local writer who was, to the bright but uneducated daughter, the 'uncrowned king of Fowey'. It was Quiller-Burrow's daughter Foy who was riding with Daphne beyond Bodmin Moor when a thunderstorm forced them into Jamaica Inn to be entertained, so legend has it, with smuggling stories by the local rector. He tin can't take been altogether delighted to find himself reimagined, when Daphne's novel was published in 1936, as the enigmatic Vicar of Altarnun.

Co-ordinate to Lady Victoria Vyvyan of another ancient and beautiful local mansion, Trelowarren, that wasn't the merely eventful stop at Jamaica Inn. Daphne, Foy and Lady Vyvyan'southward great aunt Clara – all of them more interested in practical get-up than in manner – were one time refused entry by staff who thought they were Gypsies. Who knows if it's true? It is, as Daphne would surely acknowledge, a good story.

Frenchman'south Creek is on the Helford river

From Trelowarren it'south a lovely walk through the woods down to Frenchman's Creek, du Maurier'due south honeymoon destination on the Helford River that she used as a magical location for her eponymous pirate romance. She and Major 'Boy' Browning were married in the tiny chapel of St Wyllow in 1932, and information technology's another pleasant 45-minute walk from Ferryside to the chapel.

It's time to brave the moors – and the phantoms, if you lot believe Jamaica Inn's current staff. There's a fine tradition of ghost stories here, which may be connected to local smugglers' desire to discourage surprise visitors. Now, however, the Inn has a Smugglers' Museum – an interesting if haphazard collection that includes the lady smuggler's must-accept: a stiletto with a vial hidden in its heel.

Of course, as professional guide Mark Camp points out when nosotros tramp Bodmin Moor from Jamaica Inn towards Brownish Willy, the highest point in Cornwall, there may have been no smuggling near here. After all, why haul your sick-gotten appurtenances so far inland? Although the area has a long tradition of secreting valuables: nosotros are walking beyond a Bronze Age burial basis. Information technology'southward odd that Du Maurier, with her morbid imagination and love of history, never gear up a novel so; peradventure she idea 17th-century state of war and contemporary homicidal seductresses – to say nix of sinister Joss Merlyn and his cohorts – more than useful for frightening off tourists.

Where to stay

Jamaica Inn, Bolventor £
The inspiration for Daphne Du Maurier's famous novel is under new management, but that shouldn't deter the ghosts that apparently conjugate vi of the 17 rooms (01566 86250; jamaicainn.co.uk; doubles from £85).

St Mawes Retreats, St Mawes ££
One of a scattering of houses on the vertiginous slope to a higher place the St Mawes bay that brand up St Mawes Retreats, Dreamcatchers has 4 bedrooms (sleeping viii), all ensuite, balconies on both floors with views out to sea and a spectacular kitchen-dining-living room. If you lot don't want to self-cater, Georgie Stevens – an excellent private chef – will cook your dinner from £35 a head. The holding sleeps 4 and costs from £950 for three nights (0800 088 6622; stmawesretreats.co.u.k.).

Fowey Hall £££
Cute manor house hotel, with roaring fires and a superb restaurant (see below), perched above Fowey. The views of the river and beyond to Polruan, particularly from the indoor pool and the outdoor hot tub, are even more beautiful; double rooms from £185 (0844 482 2152; foweyhallhotel.co.uk).

Where to swallow

Sam's, Fowey £
A cheery, 60s-style bistro near the quay at 20 Fore St (01726 832273; samsfowey.co.united kingdom of great britain and northern ireland).

New Thousand restaurant, Trelowarren ££
But because the Vyvyans have owned this belongings since the 15th century doesn't mean they can't install a pizza oven in the former stable block, pull together a expert wine list and serve some food (Mawgan, Helston; 01326 221595; newyardrestaurant.co.uk).

Tabb'due south, Truro ££
A modernistic British restaurant that makes full use of local produce, housed in a sweet former pub at 85 Kenwyn St (01872 262110; tabbs.co.uk).

Fowey Hall £££
The splendid eating place hither uses local produce and has a great wine list; they smoke their own duck and dove and cure their own bounding main trout (as above).

The inside rail

The Fowey Festival of Words and Music (organised by two Du Maurier experts) runs from May 10-17 (foweyfestival.com), but throughout the year you can pay homage to the writer simply past exploring the area on foot, taking the route from Trelowarren to du Maurier's honeymoon destination, Frenchman's Creek; the Hall Walk (nationaltrust.org.uk/item379352) or from her family'due south home at Ferryside to the St Wyllow Church where she and Major Browning married.

On Bodmin Moor, there are superb walks in all directions – but mind Mary Yellan's folly and go in total daylight, with a map, or better nevertheless, with moor expert Marking Camp (bestofbodminmoor.co.uk/member-directory/walkaboutwest) – and Holywell Bay, where the BBC's new product of Jamaica Inn was recently filmed.

Read more

Expert guide to Cornwall
Cornwall's all-time hotels
Cornwall's best attractions
Cornwall's best restaurants
Cornwall'southward best beaches

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Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/united-kingdom/england/cornwall/articles/Daphne-du-Mauriers-Cornwall/

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