A Rainy Day Read

THE HOUSE ON THE STRAND 

~ DAPHNE DU MAURIER~

It’s a bit flooded here in southeast England at the moment. So whilst stuck at home and unable to explore the pretty countryside at home , I am whisking myself away to Cornwall with Du Maurier’s famously atmospheric writing. The moor a few miles down the road from myself is completely submerged in murky water, but the moor and seaside Du Maurier describes is perfectly clear in my mind. Published in 1969, Du Maurier’s book tells the story of a man escaping his American wife and stepsons , by the use of his eccentric friend’s drug, taking him back in time the 14th century.

Whilst the effects of the drug are of course unrealistic, having to use my imagination feels like a relief. In a world where adventure seems to die in adult and teenage books, where it is all too easy to think ‘It’s just not Harry Potter’ about a book newly read, The House on the Strand is irresistible. Parallel universes and time-travel, eccentric characters akin to those in Brideshead Revisited, and an American wife, Vita, brilliantly mirroring the rich American woman whom Mrs De Winter is accompanying in Monte Carlo in ‘Rebecca’, all make for an exciting, adventurous and indeed dark novel.

Forget the drug; Daphne Du Maurier’s book offers a much safer, less dangerous and yet equally exciting opportunity  to escape the outside world, in my case the wind rattling my windows, causing the lights to go out every half an hour.