Daphne Du Maurier – DAVID OAKES

Whilst making up a selection of images of Cornwall I stumbled across this image taken some years ago which I captured in the little boating community of Fowey.

We were on the quay when this little girl came along with a little chair, she put down her coat, scattered a couple of coins, made herself comfy, adjusted her hat and started to play her school recorder…..and she was not that bad either producing some pleasant tunes even though her music was a children’s illustrated teach yourself book…….Nor did she lack confidence and those odd decoy coins had soon done there job and attracted many more from very appreciative passers by.

It did make me wonder just where she was now, all these years later…..has she hatched another money making scheme and now a rich entrepreneur OR was she now the Star Flautist with an International Orchestra touring the world?

Perhaps in years to come she would become another famous adopted daughter of Fowey……just like another famous lady – Daphne Du Maurier.

Du Maurier is famous for her writings many becoming modern classics with some become iconic films. Jamaica Inn, Frenchman’s Creek perhaps being the best know – both, like many of her other books, drawing heavily for location and atmosphere from the Cornish villages, harbours, coast and countryside. Although a Londoner she lived for many years alongside the Bodinnick to Fowey Ferry in the appropriately named Ferryside House (below) with views over the river to Fowey……

Du Maurier died in 1987 but Fowey still manages to attract Tourist on the strength of her literary fame and books. Each year there is a Du Maurier Festival and The Literary Centre keeps the legend alive with a permanent display and supply of her books….

Fowey is no longer the working fishing village it once was but now a cosmopolitan waterside town, blending old with new, offering safe moorings on the River Fowey with shops and restaurants to refill and refresh visiting yachtsmen…..