As recounted by Margaret Forster, Daphne Du Maurier first met Q when she became close friends with Q’s daughter, Foy, and it was, apparently, whilst out riding with Foy on a foggy Bodmin Moor that they visited the “Jamaica Inn” which inspired her classic story of smuggling and wrecking.

There is a lovely, symmetrical, connection between Q, Daphne du Maurier and Robert Louis Stephenson. Q was asked by Stephenson’s family to complete his unfinished novel "St Ives: Being the Adventures of a French Prisoner in England” (1898), writing the last six chapters based on Stevenson’s synopsis.

 

Q’s daughter, Foy, asked her friend, Daphne du Maurier to complete Q’s unfinished novel “Castle Dor” (1962). “Castle Dor” was based on the story of Tristan and Iseult, an early version of the romance between Lancelot and Guinevere in "The Tales of King Arthur”.

Although she was very honoured to be asked, du Maurier said that “It would be awful if they said I had ruined his beautiful style”. Nobody has ever claimed she did so particularly as Du Maurier merged her writings with Q’s to create a near perfectly seamless narrative.

Next (Influences)