If readers had to guess the content of Daphne du Maurier's two best-known novels, Jamaica Inn and Rebecca from the names of their locations – Jamaica Inn and Manderley respectively – what would they conclude? Taking the publication dates into account, they might surmise that the novels were late examples of Rider Haggard-like imperial fiction or a contribution to the tradition of women's imperial romance of which E. M. Hull's The Sheik is the most famous example. It is hardly likely that the names of the locations would lead readers to assume that du Maurier's novels are predominantly set in Cornwall.

The ‘odd’ names given to the locations may be an example of du Maurier's historical literacy, and in the case of Jamaica Inn may allude to the sea traffic between the Caribbean and Cornwall. For instance, in a note prefacing Jamaica Inn, du Maurier makes the ritual claim that all characters and events are entirely imaginary, but she also claims that Jamaica Inn refers to an actual Inn of that name on the road between Bodmin and Launceston. But even when one has reflected on possible explanations there seems at the very least something curiously and deliberately exotic about the choice of names – and even some of the descriptions: Bodmin Moor, for example, is referred to several times in Jamaica Inn as ‘motionless as desert sand’. There is nothing unique about the presence of exoticism in thirties works. For instance Rebecca shares with an even more unlikely ‘regional’ work – George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier – a fascination with colonial places.