Daphne du Maurier: Open Book and Suntup Editions Rebecca

Hello everyone! It’s been an exciting couple of months for me on the Du Maurier front! In February, the wonderful US press Suntup Editions announced their new collectors edition of Daphne du Maurier’s most famous novel Rebecca, featuring specially commissioned illustrations by Iva Troj and a new afterword by yours truly!

You can read more about the numbered and lettered editions on the Suntup website here: Rebecca. Both editions sold out immediately upon release! And I’m not surprised because they’re absolutely stunning.

I still can’t quite get over the fact that my words will be included with Daphne’s novel! The title page is just gorgeous and I can’t believe my luck! I was delighted to be asked to write this piece and I can’t wait to see the editions in real life. As many of you know who follow me on instagram, I have quite the collection of Rebeccas so it’s going to be incredible to add an edition featuring my own afterword to the shelves!

I’m very grateful to the team at Suntup Editions and to the Du Maurier Estate for trusting me with this commission.

As if that wasn’t exciting enough, earlier this month I was invited to take part in a panel discussion of Du Maurier’s work on the BBC Radio 4 programme Open Book, presented by Olivia Bright and also featuring writers Olivia Laing and Wyl Menmuir.

L to R: Olivia Laing, Octavia Bright, me, Wyl Menmuir in the Studio at the BBC

The programme was an in-depth discussion of Daphne’s work and you can listen again here: BBC Open Book Du Maurier. It formed part of the ‘Daphne du Maurier: Double Exposure’ series which also included new dramatisations and readings of Daphne’s work and a new drama featuring Helena Bonham Carter as Daphne (a list of the programmes is available here).

We packed a lot into the half hour programme, discussing My Cousin Rachel, Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek, Rebecca, and The House on the Strand, and I even managed to get in shoutouts for some of my favourite lesser known works, The Parasites and The Infernal World of Branwell Bronte (you can read more of my thoughts on the latter two in my interview with Five Books here). We could have talked for hours!

It was hugely exciting to visit the BBC and to record the programme at Broadcasting House. The TARDIS was in the lobby!! (This Doctor is certainly ready for a time travel adventure if the showrunners are interested!!)

You can read more of my articles on Daphne via my Du Maurier page here on my website and if you’d like to listen to me discussing one of Daphne’s most extraordinary short story collections, The Breaking Point, do pop over to the podcast Backlisted here.

Thanks for reading!