Captivated is about the inspiration for three of the most intriguing characters of fiction: Svengali, Peter Pan and Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca. The link is J.M. Barrie, known as Uncle Jim not only to the five Llewelyn Davies boys - the 'lost boys' of Peter Pan - but also to their cousins - the three du Maurier girls, including Daphne.
The Llewelyn Davies boys and the du Maurier girls shared a grandfather - George du Maurier, author of Trilby, the international bestseller which showed readers for the first time how one individual may, by means of hypnosis, gain complete control over another. George du Maurier lived in a late-nineteenth-century world of mesmerists, psychics, trancers and table-turners, and his ideas resonated down the generations to dominate the imaginations of both J. M. Barrie and Daphne du Maurier.
This fascinating book delves deep, makes links and yields up secrets.
PIERS DUDGEON knew Daphne du Maurier and worked with her in the 1980s. When he discovered that she had put a moratorium on publication of her adolescent diaries until fifty years after her death, he was prompted to begin his researches into her background. What was the mystery that had Daphne been so keen to suppress?
