Daphne du Maurier's correspondence with Oriel Malet began in the early 1950s, after they met at a cocktail party in London. Oriel was a gauche young writer while Daphne, more than 20 years her senior, was an internationally celebrated author - yet the friendship flourished over a 30 year span, fed by the letters that arrived faithfully from Menabilly, the du Maurier house in Cornwall. Linked by Oriel Malet's tender recollections, the letters are a charming and unique picture of the time as well as a valuable record of the thoughts and working methods of a fine and well-loved writer. While Oriel tasted Life in a houseboat and mixed with the artistic Who's Who of Paris, Daphne's letters told of her family, her own distinguished circle of friends and revealed the complex, rigorous and intensely personal art of the writer. Disarmingly frank about sex, an earnest seeker after spiritual and psychological truth, Daphne du Maurier emerges from her letters as a warm and amusing correspondent - as well as a once-in-a-lifetime friend.