This was the first du Maurier I ever read. I was 14, and I found it on a hotel bookshelf on a family drive down through France. We were only at the hotel for one night, so I just took it with me because I loved it so much. Some books you can revisit at a later stage of life and they're just as good. Some you can't.Rule Britannia is alternate history. It's set in Cornwall, and opens with the US army arriving to 'protect' us following a merger/takeover. Britain is to become the USUK, and operate largely as a giant interactive theme park. Mad, a once-famous actress, now lives on the Cornish coast along with her 18 year-old granddaughter, Emma, and a brood of adopted, troubled boys. She spearheads resistance to the USUK, triggering a movement which will spread, by the end of the novel, to all corners of the country.The characters are lovely, and I was still drawn into the beautifully evoked setting. I really cared about the boys, and there are some excellently funny moments. The US soldiers, though, aren't convincing and neither is the idea that the US would want to create this sort of bond with the UK. There's a moment when Taffy, a wild Welshman living in the woods with an illicit ham radio, announces that the Princes have landed as part of the resistance movement. That vision hasn't aged well. Can you imagine Princes Charles and Andrew doing anything so very active?Interesting as an historical piece, but nothing like as satisfactory as, say, Frenchman's Creek. Again I'd like 3.5 stars. Having read things like Rebecca and some of her short stories, which are deeper and darker stories than this one, I did come away just a little bit disappointed. This was just a little too cut and dry for me - the good guys and the bad guys were so obvious, and the young protagonist was a bit fluffy for me. But the premise was, and still is, a scary one, and even now provides food for thought.
What do You think about Mad (1972)?
A decent read, but not as good as some of her other novels.
—lilyjo
