Does anyone read Daphne du Maurier (1907–89) these days? An immensely popular novelist for some decades, she was much filmed, for screens large and small, most famously by Alfred Hitchcock, who filmed Jamaica Inn and Rebecca in 1939 and 1940 respectively, and, even more famously, The Birds in 1963. Clearly there was plenty to attract filmmakers to her work. As one who had not read her for several decades, I was impressed on recently reading My Cousin Rachel (1951) by the sheer quality of the prose and its ability to maintain an enigmatic quality without descent into mere teasing.

Back in 1952, 20th Century Fox filmed the novel with Richard Burton as Philip Ashley and Olivia de Havilland as his cousin Rachel. Re-viewing this version, it is probably true to say that it adheres somewhat more closely to the novel, particularly in the earliest and final episodes. This is a matter for neither praise nor blame in matters of adaptation, but, in relation to the film’s ending, the old film wins hands down. This apart, the new Fox Searchlight production makes very intelligent use of the novel. Roger Michell, as director, knows how to make absorbing films from notable novels, as he did with Jane Austen’s Persuasion (1995) and Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love (2004), without recourse to slavish ‘fidelity’.