Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, DBE was an English author and playwright. Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories seldom feature a conventional happy ending, and have been described as ‘moody and resonant’ with overtones of the paranormal. An obituarist wrote: "Du Maurier was mistress of calculated irresolution. She did not want to put her readers' minds at rest. She wanted her riddles to persist. She wanted the novels to continue to haunt us beyond their endings." These bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by the critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for storytelling craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels Rebecca and Jamaica Inn and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now". Du Maurier spent much of her life in Cornwall where most of her works are set. As her fame increased through her novels and the films based upon them, she became more reclusive. Her father was the actor Gerald du Maurier, and her grandfather was the artist and writer George du Maurier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daphne_du_Maurier