The Daphne du Maurier International Centenary Conference

Born 100 years ago on 13 May 1907, Daphne du Maurier is one of Britain's most popular novelists, her works among its most celebrated exports. She is especially associated with the bestselling novel, Rebecca, which has enjoyed international success since its publication in 1938. The renowned film versions of her books, including Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca (1940) and The Birds (1963), and Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973), have brought her a major global reputation, which has continued with television and theatre versions of the short fiction and novels, including a new, box office-breaking touring play of Rebecca.

Her popularity has sometimes led to patronising critical commentary, and she suffered badly from dismissive classification as a ‘romantic novelist' - something she fiercely repudiated. The success of Rebecca has led to the neglect of a generically-varied and thematically wide-ranging body of fiction and non-fiction writing. However, in recent decades, distinguished international critics and biographers have paid serious attention to, and offered challenging perspectives on, this complex writer and her work.

Since 2003, Virago has reprinted the whole oeuvre, placing many out-of-print texts back in the public domain and inviting novelists and critics to contextualise the writings for a new generation of readers. These introductions, together with original critical and biographical essays on du Maurier, and some of her unpublished fiction and poetry, will appear in Virago's The Daphne du Maurier Companion, edited by Helen Taylor. The Companion commemorates the 100th anniversary of Daphne du Maurier's birth, as will the Centenary Daphne du Maurier Festival of Arts and Literature, to be held 10-19 May 2007 in Fowey, Cornwall, where the writer began to write and lived during most of her career.

The University of Exeter Special Collections Library holds a large archive of du Maurier family papers, and its School of English has been closely involved with this archive and the Festival. It is therefore hosting an International Centenary Conference, 10-11 May 2007, to dovetail with the Festival so that delegates can participate in both.

The conference is based in Fowey Town Hall, at the heart of Cornwall, the county du Maurier loved and made famous through her evocative writing. Du Maurier's work will be discussed in terms of new critical and biographical approaches, and through the new insights made possible by access to archival materials. Events include keynote lectures, thematic workshops and panels, a buffet lunch overlooking the Estuary and Harbour, and a reception hosted by du Maurier's three children at Ferryside, the house where she wrote her first novel, The Loving Spirit, now home of her son, Christian Browning.

Keynote speakers include Nina Auerbach, author of Daphne du Maurier, Haunted Heiress, Sally Beauman, novelist and author of Rebecca's Tale, and Avril Horner and Sue Zlosnik, co-authors of Daphne du Maurier: Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination. Some speakers and delegates will be invited to contribute to a Book Group Day, Saturday 12 May, and to other Festival events. This academic conference is expected to attract considerable interest, but because Fowey venues are small, places will be strictly limited.