He had the face of one who walks in his sleep, and for a wild moment the idea came to me that perhaps he was not normal, not altogether sane. There were people who had trances, I had surely heard of them, and they followed strange laws of which we could know nothing, they obeyed the tangled orders of their own sub-conscious minds. Perhaps he was one of them, and here we were within six feet of death.

' Her stories read like classic tales of terror and suspense but written with a sure touch for character imagery and suggestive meaning. Christian (b. In the summer of 1943 Daphne du Maurier began writing the autobiographically inspired drama The Years Between about the unexpected return of a senior officer thought killed in action who finds that his wife has taken his seat as Member of Parliament and has started a romantic relationship with a local farmer.

eɪ/; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright. : /ˈdæfni duː ˈmɒri. Her elder sister was the writer Angela du Maurier.