The Housekeeper

The housekeeper is Mrs Danowski (known as ‘Danni’), of Polish-Jewish heritage, who oversees the running of Manderville Hall, a grand house on the Cornish coast. A glamorous young writer comes to visit to research her novel and is shown around the premises by Danni; the two women establish an instant connection.

The affair that follows is the most important, life-altering thing that has ever happened to Danni, but after a passionate summer of love the novelist casts her off. Danni feels betrayed, not least when the novelist chooses to fictionalise her as the jealous and vengeful Mrs Danvers in what would become a triumphantly successful novel, Rebecca.

Asking the question, what inspires a writer, Rose Tremain has created an entirely original and fictional imagining of how Daphne du Maurier’s masterwork came to be written, and conceives how a novelist's subject might take revenge.