Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, was an English author and playwright. Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. Because her childhood contained many literary and artistic experiences, it was not a surprise that Du Maurier had a very vivid imagination and a profound love for writing and reading. Her first novel ‘The Loving Spirit’ was published in 1931. Daphne du Maurier also wrote three plays. The first was an adaptation of her novel Rebecca that was published in 1938. The play was released on 5th March 1940. The second play was The Years Between that opened on 10th January 1945 and the third one was called September Tide which first opened on 15th December 1948. According to her biographer Margaret Forster, she told no one about the honour, so that even her children learned of it only from the newspapers. "She thought of pleading illness for the investiture until her children insisted it would be a great day for the older grandchildren. So she went through with it, though she slipped out quietly afterwards to avoid the attention of the press." Mary Anne is a novelisation of the life of Daphne Du Maurier’s great-great-grandmother, Mary Anne Clarke. It is easy to see why Du Maurier chose to write about Mary Anne; the bare facts of her life are full of novelistic potential. Mary Anne was born in Chancery Lane in 1776, of uncertain parentage; her father or step-father was a ‘compositor’ or type-setter. You can listen online to free English audiobook “Mary Anne” by Daphne du Maurier on our website.
