The New York based artist Duncan Hannah adored Nova Pilbeam from afar, often painting her and even, when he was in London, hovering outside her house (in Grove Terrace, Kentish Town) in the hope of seeing her – without apparently without ever doing so. This is ‘Nova with a Faraway Look’ 2007, available here, and here is a fascinating Remodelista article about Duncan Hannah and his work.

‘After Young and Innocent (1937) Nova Pilbeam seemed destined for a great screen career, but it somehow failed to materialise’ (Daily Telegraph obituary). It is possible that cinematic success had come too early. It is also possible that she was too intelligent to lead the kind of life required by the movie moguls. And undoubtedly  the death of her husband Penrose Tennyson in a plane crash in 1941, two years after their marriage, affected her hugely, and having always preferred the stage to film, after his death she played only minor film roles. Yet although her stage career started well (Peter Pan,  Juliet for the Old Vic) it too faded away.

Nova Pilbeam’s first role was in Hitchcock’s The Man Who Knew Too Much in 1934 when she was 14. ‘Even at that time,’Hitchcock said of her, ‘she had the intelligence of a fully grown woman. She had plenty of confidence and ideas of her own.’ In 1937 she appeared in his Young and Innocent. Over the next ten years she was in a dozen more films .

Nova Pilbeam  –the greatest British actress that never was – has died and will be the subject of the Post this week. Born in 1919 in Wimbledon, her career initially got off to a fizzing start. This is what one Nova Pilbeam website says about her here: ‘David O Selznick considered she had the potential to be a star for the world market. He wanted to cast her as Mrs De Winter in Rebecca (1940). It didn’t happen. Instead, Nova Pilbeam is a forgotten actress with an odd name, except for those who have seen her in a film.’

Mapperton is actually a bit grander than the filmmakers would have us believe (here is the staircase) and yet it was the perfect background for the film. A visit is heartily recommended.

The very spot where yesterday’s photograph from the film was taken and where we had a wonderful walk.

Carey Mulligan and Matthias Schoenaerts in the final scene from Far From the Madding Crowd, half a mile away from Mapperton.