The Housekeeper

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‘Daphne du Maurier stole my life’

Bestselling author Rose Tremain invents the story of how a great novel of the past came into being and in turn creates a masterwork of her own . . .

‘An absolute masterclass’ CLAIRE LYNCH

Mrs Danowski – known as Danni – is the housekeeper of a grand mansion on the wild coast of Cornwall. When glamorous young writer Daphne du Maurier visits Manderville Hall to research her new novel, she and Danni are drawn into a clandestine and intoxicating affair.

For Danni, it is an all-consuming love; for Daphne a submission to long-suppressed desires. But their fragile secret is vulnerable to prying eyes and destined for heartbreak. When Daphne’s novel launches to triumphant success, Danni is distraught to find herself transformed into a malign and jealous character on the page. She seeks respite from the hurt by telling her own story: The Housekeeper.

‘A sweeping, atmospheric story of forbidden love, power and privilege’ ERIN KELLY

‘Exquisitely drawn, poignant and devastating’ STACEY HALLS

'Exquisitely drawn, poignant and devastating. Rose Tremain is masterful in her depiction of a summer romance, and how a shared experience can be so utterly different for the people involved'
Stacey Halls, author of The Familiars

'An absolute masterclass in character and style. The Housekeeper is a novel of patient observation and irresistible passion all at once. Just as this novel grows from between the lines of another, so we see the great layering of Tremain’s writing. It is, in some ways, a book of half-lived lives. It is also a book of what can be imagined, the possibilities of desires followed, ambitions pursued'
Claire Lynch, author of A Family Matter

About Rose Tremain

Rose Tremain's novels and short stories have been published in thirty countries and have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Dylan Thomas Award (The Colonel's Daughter and Other Stories), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence) the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and France’s Prix Femina (Sacred Country), and the South Bank Sky Arts Award (The Gustav Sonata). Her most recent novel is Absolutely and Forever (2023), which was a Sunday Times Book of the Year. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and a Dame in 2020. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.

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