Overview

Sir Gerald du Maurier was the most celebrated actor-manager of his day, knighted for his services to the theatre in 1922. Published within six months of her father's death, this frank biography was considered shocking by many of his admirers - but it was a huge success, winning Daphne du Maurier critical acclaim and launching her career. In Gerald: A Portrait, Daphne du Maurier captures the spirit and charm of the charismatic actor who played the original Captain Hook, amusingly recalling his eccentricities and his sense of humour, and sensitively portraying the darker side of his nature and his bouts of depression.

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9781844080663

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A remarkable book ... brilliant comic writing The Times

When Daphne Du Maurier lost her father, Gerald, in 1934, she refused to attend his funeral but instead went onto Hampstead Heath and released some pigeons, thinking this more in keeping with what her father would have wanted. Her way of saying farewell to Gerald was to suggest to her agent that she write a biography of him; not a traditional, serious book, as was the custom of the time, but instead a colourful and honest portrait of a celebrated theatrical man. Despite the controversy surrounding it - Du Maurier felt compelled to allude to her father's infidelities - her book was a huge success, and on the strength of its reception she travelled to Cornwall and wrote one of her most successful novels, 'Jamaica Inn'. 'Gerald: A Portrait' is unlike anything else that Du Maurier has written, and for that reason is intriguing, as well as being a readable snapshot of Victorian family life. (Kirkus UK)

'A remarkable book ... brilliant comic writing' The Times

Author Information

Daphne du Maurier was born in 1906 and educated at home and in Paris. She began writing in 1928, and many of her bestselling novels were set in Cornwall, where she lived for most of her life. She was made a DBE in 1969 and died in 1989.

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