This book would never have been written had not Gérard de Cortanze suggested it to me, more than ten years ago. I would like to thank him for his obstinacy and his patience. My thanks to my French editor, Héloïse d’Ormesson, and to Francis Esménard, at Albin Michel. My thanks to Daphne du Maurier’s three children, Tessa Montgomery, Flavia Leng, and Kits Browning. My thanks to Ned Browning, her grandson. For their feedback, I would like to thank Arnaud Guillon, Julia Harris-Voss, Sarah Hirsch, Nicolas Jolly, Didier Le Fur, Laure du Pavillon, Catherine Rambaud, Chantal Remy, and Stella de Rosnay.
On the tracks of Daphne in Meudon, Boulogne, and Neuilly, I would like to thank Julien Le Magueresse, from the Hauts-de-Seine Departmental Archives, and Stéphanie Le Toux, from the Archives Deparment in Meudon, as well as Thérèse-Marie Brachet, from the Documentation Center of the Art and History Museum in Meudon. For their precious help concerning the genealogy of the Busson du Maurier family, my thanks to Anne Hall, Philippe Larus, Lionel and Monique Royer. My thanks to Xavier Lachazette for his works on the novelist. In Fowey, my thanks to Ann and David Willmore, from the Bookends bookstore, Lynn Goold, from the Daphne du Maurier Literary Centre, and Alex and Martin, from the Old Quay House Hotel. My thanks also to: Felicity Blunt, Bruno Corty, Claire Desserey, Laila Embelton, Emma Harding, Christine Faunch, Christianne Lim, Anouk Neuhoff, Géraldine Meignan, Esther Rowe, Audrey Siourd, Philippe de Spoelberch, Isabella Thomas-Varouxakis, Christiana and Arnaud Troubetzkoy. A special thank-you to my translator, Sam Taylor, who worked on this edition in English. It’s not easy translating a bilingual author and he handled it brilliantly. Thank you to Sylvan Creekmore at St. Martin’s Press, for help.
Last but not least, my thanks to Nicolas for his serenity during the writing of this book, even when I sprayed Daphne’s perfume around (Vent Vert by Balmain) in an attempt to help bring her back to life. He now knows the du Maurier code as well as I do.