Daphne du Maurier | The du Maurier Collection | Auction 27 April 2019

Comprising over 300 lots of personal correspondence, manuscripts, photographs and personal effects relating to Daphne du Maurier, her husband Lieutenant-General Frederick “Boy” Browning and the du Maurier family. From the personal collection of the Late Maureen Baker-Munton.
Auction to be held on Saturday 27 April 2019 in Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK
For more information and to register your interest:
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Video Transcript:
Roddy Lloyd | Managing Director Rowley's Auctioneers:
'Daphne du Maurier was a story teller and was really a romantic writer although most of her books had a dark and evil side to them. We've got a very exciting sale coming up on Saturday the 27th April and a lot of the letters have not been seen before. She was quite, er fruity in her language and she wasn't one to hold back when it came to criticising other people. So they're very interesting, fascinating letters all about relationships between her, her husband and various friends. Her husband was Lieutenant General Frederick 'Boy' Browning, who was a dashing guard's officer, after the war he worked at Buckingham Palace originally for the Princess Elizabeth at the time and for the Duke of Edinburgh and they became very close friends over a long period'.
Kristen Baker-Munton | Son of Maureen Baker-Munton:
'So my mother went to a party in India, she was brought up in India, at which Boy Browning was present and he needed a PA. They must have got on well. She said to Boy Browning that she couldn't be his PA because she'd need her bicycle and her bicycle was with her mother somewhere else in India so Boy lent her his plane to go and pick it up and it was later on when she came back with Boy Browning to work with him in England that she then got to know his wife Daphne du Maurier'.
Will Axon | Valuer:
'Well what's very unusual about this collection is that it spans a great many years in the relationship between Daphne and Maureen. When you first read about Daphne meeting Maureen there's an element of suspicion there because she's been with her husband abroad, she's maybe suspicious that she's been his 'bit on the side' shall we say but then as she gets to know Maureen and the warmth and the relationship there grows I think you see a real change in tone through the letters'.
Kristen Baker-Munton | Son of Maureen Baker-Munton:
'I've seen photographs of my mother when she was young and she was very glamorous and the time that she had in the Far East, South East Asia towards the end of the war, she was included in parties when Mountbatten came out and that sort of things. I'm sure during war time she provided a bit of colour to their evenings and I I don't know what Daphne might have made of this of course from a distance and, er she, my mother first met Daphne when she and Boy landed back in England and Daphne had come to meet Boy off the plane, so thoughts could have been anything really. So when my mother came back to England, she was working for him at the palace and then after the coronation she moved with Boy to Prince Philip's staff. Initially when my mother was working inLondon with Boy, Daphne was writing and didn't come up to London or if she did not very much so the initial correspondence with Daphne was like you would with staff, so she would receive a request to perhaps pick the children up from the train when they came back from school. Sometime later she went down to, at weekends with Boy to stay at Menabilly and met Daphne, got to know Daphne better at that time but I think was helping with chores. I've had a chance to look through all the letters and see that transition from staff to confidant and friend. So after my parents and had me my mother asked Daphne's husband Boy to be my godfather. When I was young we used to drive down to Cornwall to stay with Boy and Daphne for a summer holiday. We drove straight through the centre of London, at I don't know 5 o'clock in the morning or something, very long journey, no motorways and I remember distinctly the drive down to the house Menabilly, the greenery and wild garlic and it was overgrown and there was a darkness to it. And it is so reminiscent of the opening lines of 'Rebecca' 'last night I dreamt that I went to Manderley' and you get to the end of the drive and this, I was young, I mean it must be a big house, but it seemed to me to be gargantuan. So I was a young man, of course I knew nothing about the complications of the relationships and everything else. I suppose I first became aware of that when Margaret Forster was writing the biography and my parents were, obviously my mother had a big collection of letters and I remember conversations over dinner about whether things should be withheld and there were then conversations with the family and the lawyers and it was all quite complicated. Like many writers Daphne had phrases and nicknames
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[@luispocito165]

I envy you for having such a beautiful mother and even more for her being such a good writer. I enjoy reading her books so much.

[@RadioWhoPoo]

Great piece, I wish more auctioneers showed research like this

[@Treborbobuk]

My old boss! KBM you're looking so well, best wishes.

[@carolking6355]

Life is so horribly complicated.