Du Maurier Daphne - Gerald: a portrait

Sir Gerald du Maurier, the most famous actor-manager of his day, died in April 1934, aged sixty-one. His daughter Daphne did not attend his funeral in Hampstead but instead went onto the Heath and released some pigeons, aware that this might seem an affected thing to do but believing it to be a gesture in keeping with her fathers spirit. After shed helped her mother and two sisters answer letters of condolence, she went home to Frimley, in Surrey, where her husband, Boy Browning, was then second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion Grenadier Guards. A week later, leaving her baby, Tessa, with the nanny, she went into her local church, not to pray but simply to think about her father in peace and quiet. She also wanted to turn over in her mind an idea that had been steadily growing ever since she knew he had died: should she write about him? Should she attempt a biography of him? But would this seem disrespectful, so soon after his death? Could a daughter do such a thing without the result being embarrassing? Could a daughter do it and be truthful without hurting people still alive?