HUNGRY HILL

A new departure for Miss du Maurier, and one, I am afraid, that will be a disappointment to her readers who have come to expect fast-paced, tense stories of character and action. This is instead the story of the effect of external natural forces on four generations of one family, the Brodricks, Irish landed gentry and owners of prosperous copper and tin mines. Two men of the family, the John who defiled Hungry Hill by opening its mines, and his grandson, Henry, who became an absentee landlord, lived — and outlived — their span. The others men died young, some of them violent deaths. Hungry Hill took its toll. The story spans the years from 1820 to 1919 and the Civil War, when — as a symbol of defiance towards the "haves" who drank with the Black and Tans, the men whose motto was "Ourselves Alone" burned Clonmere Castle which embodied all that was left of the family for young John-Henry. This is a story of a place — of changing moods, changing times. There is no strong holding character of holding theme of story. It will sell — and rent — on Daphne du Maurier's name, but I cannot see it showing the staying power of Rebecca or even the popular romantic pull of Frenchman's Creek.