Justine on Daphne...

So, here I am, back at the dove grey laptop. All went well for the 'Daphne' talk in the Round Room, and instead of it being the party where nobody turned up, there were so many people that they couldn't all get in, and were turned away by a rather fierce security person. It was a very atmospheric setting -- the perfect place to talk about hauntings, literary and otherwise. Unfortunately, dove grey reader couldn't get in -- and I've just said to her, why didn't she didn't tap me on the shoulder, and I would have found her a spare seat? As I say, she is far too modest.
Anyway, Port Eliot seems to me to be the closest you can get to Manderley, and has the same atmosphere as Menabilly, where Daphne lived for 25 years. Here's a quote I used at the beginning of 'Daphne', and which I quoted in the Round Room today, because it feels relevant to Port Eliot. It's from Oriel Malet, one of Du Maurier's friends, and is from her book 'Letters from Menabilly':
'Menabilly was one of these houses, in which layers of time seemed to have worn thin in places, so that the past now and then showed through. There were rooms in which a lot seemed to have been going on before you entered them, and would probably do so again once you, the intruder, had left... There, even at midday, one sometimes had the distinct impression of being watched. In winter, I always tried to spend as little time as possible getting ready for bed, although the watchers were in no sense malevolent; they were just there.'