Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

I first read this short novel (184 pages) in 1985 and recently re-read it as we were staying at the Grand Hotel du Lac in Vevey where it was written. It is a charming spot, much more attractive than Montreux and the hotel smaller, prettier and friendlier than all the other Belle Époque hotels in Switzerland. I loved its feminine decor, fresh flowers everywhere and the pastel portrait of the actress Anna Massey in the lobby. She had played the heroine Edith in a television adaptation of the story soon after it won the Booker Prize. Everything came to life: the steamers on the lake, the little town close by, the Italian shop in Montreux where Mrs. Pusey bought her exquisite lingerie...I loved re-reading it all. I had forgotten the sharp sting of betrayal at the end of the novel and it took me by surprise again as it did all those years ago.
I treated myself to a couple of illustrated books of the hotel to savour the memories. One is called Dream Makers and matches quotations from the novel to lovely photographs of the place.
'On the opposite shore she could make out lights that seemed almost welcoming now: the lights of the Hotel du Lac.'
I long to go back but the book takes me there in an instant.

The Rebecca Notebook and Other Memories

Home from a family holiday in Cornwall and in the mood to re-read Daphne Du Maurier. We rented a cottage in Fowey and revisited all the old haunts: Bodinnick, Polruan, Lansallos, Par and the Menabilly estate by Polridmouth cove.I'd forgotten how much I loved it down there: the spirit of place seeps into your bones as you recall all the stories written there.
The Rebecca Notebook was the author's original outline for her famous novel and The Rebecca Epilogue, previously unpublished, takes the reader beyond the novel itself. The essays are a good read and I found Death and Widowhood particularly poignant and comforting.
'...the spirit of tenderness, of love, will not desert you. You will find that it has become part of you, rising from within yourself; and because of it you are no longer fearful of loneliness, of the dark, because death, the last enemy has been overcome.'
What an interesting woman Daphne Du Maurier was. I find myself wanting to find out more.