January 20, 1923

Oriel Malet, (January 20, 1923 to October 14, 2014) novelist, and biographer,  was born
Lady Auriel Rosemary Malet Vaughan, the youngest child of the 7th Earl of Lisburne and his wife, Regina de Bittencourt. She grew up on the family’s Crosswood estate in Aberystwyth. Her novels were well received, but never really popular. She and Daphne Du Maurier were good friends. We read:

'Malet regularly stayed with du Maurier at Menabilly in Cornwall, the house that had been the inspiration for Manderley in du Maurier’s Rebecca. And when du Maurier was invited to New York in 1952, to launch an American edition of My Cousin Rachel, Malet accompanied her, even going with her to a performance of The King and I at the St James Theatre on Broadway, starring Gertrude Lawrence, another close friend of du Maurier’s.'

Since Malet lived mostly in France, there was a large correspondence with du Maurier and these letters Malet edited and published in 1993.

'Letters from Menabilly: Portrait of a Friendship ...was glowingly reviewed in The Times.'...[where they noted] 'The acknowledgements mention the usual types and end... with a mention of her cat "Melusine" who acted as an unauthorized paperweight for the mss.'