Rule Britannia!

I have read a number of books & stories by Daphne Du Maurier [Frenchman's Creek, Jamaica Inn, The Birds, The House on The Strand, My Cousin Rachel - and of course, Rebecca] but this one completely passed me by until now. I discovered it - a Virage Modern Classic reprint - when I visited Cornwall in October. Like so many of her other books, this one is set in Cornwall.

This is her last book, published in 1972. It feels alarmingly prescient. The blurb on the back says "Emma wakes up one morning to an apocalyptic world. The cosy existence she shares with her grandmother, a famous retired actress, has been shattered: there's no post, no telephone, no radio - and an American warship sits in the harbour"

In 1987, Richard Kelly published a biography of Du Maurier, and described this book thus “In the future world of this novel England’s participation in the Common Market has failed.  Prices have risen nearly fifty percent, and a general election reveals the country to be divided about what course of action to take.  The coalition government, pressured by American financiers, prepares to accept as a solution a union of the two countries named USUK (United States United Kingdom).  The acronym, when pronounced - “You Suck” - reveals du Maurier’s bitter satirical tone in this novel.”

And in July 2016, in a letter published in The Times, Mr Robert Stiby said:

“Sir, in 1972, well before the first EU referendum, Daphne du Maurier wrote a remarkably prescient novel, Rule Britannia.  It was her last novel, set some time in the future when the UK has voted to leave Europe after a referendum.  Great uncertainty follows, a general election is called and a coalition government formed.  With high unemployment, rising prices, social unrest and a breakdown in European relations, a state of emergency is declared.  This is followed by a “friendly” armed invasion of an impoverished and beleaguered country by the all-powerful United States.  A new country is formed, USUK, with the Queen and the US president as joint heads of state.  Chaos ensues.

Perhaps the best thing we can all do at the moment is go out and buy a copy of Rule Britannia and read it while drinking a nice cup of tea or a glass of wine...”

At one point in the novel, the Prime Minister bemoans the political and financial repercussions of the leave vote, saying it "brought great economic difficulties, as I feared would be the case and as I warned you at the time" [didn't David Cameron actually say that nearly 50 years after DDM wrote it?] In another chapter, the local MP speaks of a newly created ministry of Leisure, which will bring in revenue from all the enthusiastic American tourists - who will come to Cornwall because "they have heard of the associations with Tristan and Isolde, and King Arthur too...pageants, displays, locals dressed up in costumes of the times...the whole of the west coast from Wales to Cornwall can be developed into a vast leisure-land, the good Welsh folk dressed in tall hats and cloaks, serving potato-cakes to tourists from the States..."

And now we have Lanhydrock, Poldark Mine, the Lost Gardens of Heligan, Charlestown Shipwreck Treasure Museum...not to mention the Eden Project. So much of what DDM predicted. I don't think I need to say any more! It is so clever, and I read it very quickly, because I wanted to find out what happened next. 

What I do not understand, is why nobody has made a film of this yet? the film rights are still available. A bright unknown fresh from RADA can play Emma - and her 80 year old redoubtable Gran needs to be someone like Maggie Smith or Phyllida Law -but at 85 & 88 respectively, I fear the role would be too physically demanding for these OAPs. Charlotte Rampling is only 74, and she's still going strong. We've just enjoyed her performance in DNA [Walter presents, All4 - a subtitled Danish police drama]

definitely*****