Daphne du Maurier - The Birds and other stories

[sean]

Not a novelisation, but the title story is probably more familiar from the Hitchcock film...

The Birds and other stories
First published in 1952 as The Apple Tree
(Penguin 1968)


BLURB:

Six short studies in horror, mystery, humour, and surprise by the author of Rebecca, including her all too credible fantasy of maddened birds united to wipe out humanity.

'Anyone starting this book under the impression that he may sleepily relax is in for a shock... contiually provokes both pity and terror'
- Observer


The Birds
A farm worker notices that there seem to be more birds about than usual, and, before you can say 'when animals attack' they are pecking at anything in sight, dive-bombing windows and doors and generally bringing civilisation to its knees.

A cool little story, all the more effective for its unresolved ending.

Monte Verita
A mysterious monastry-type building on a mountain, into which people go in but never come out causes a lifetime of problems for two climbers when the wife of one of them goes missing there.

Caution: may contain traces of leprosy.

The Apple Tree
A man, recently bereaved and currently enjoying the peace and quiet begins to dislike a tree in his garden which seems to be taking on some of his wife's worst characteristics.

The Little Photographer
A holiday affair ends in blackmail and murder and people being chucked off cliffs.

Kiss me again, Stranger
A mechanic meets a strange but beautiful girl on a trip to the cinema. She seems to have a thing about graveyards, and a haterd of the air force due to her parents having been killed during a raid in the war. And someone in the area has been killing pilots...

Nice and creepy, possibly the best story in the book.

The Old Man
A short piece, with a twist ending which throws the whole thing into a different light.

[dem]

Daphne Du Maurier - Classics Of The Macabre: Illustrated by Michael Foreman (Guild, 1987)

Michael Foreman

Note To The Reader

Don't Look Now
The Apple Tree
The Blue Lenses
The Birds
The Alibi
Not After Midnight

Blurb:

This sumptuous volume celebrates the 80th birthday of one of the best-known and most-loved storytellers in the English language today, Daphne du Maurier.

Here are six masterpieces of the imagination, illustrated in glowing colour by prize-winning artist, Michael Foreman.

Don't Look Now, a classic story of the macabre, opens the collection, followed by The Apple Tree, The Blue Lenses, The Birds, The Alibi and Not After Midnight.

These dramatic and compelling stories, together with their stunning illustrations, make a perfect gift to be treasured for a lifetime.

typical. you wait years to get your hands on a copy of Don't Look Now and then the bride scoops two of 'em out of a cobwebbed cardboard box in as many seconds. mr. mains can tell you all about The Blue Lens - specifically it's appearance in the 5th Fontana Book Of Horror Stories and cover photo depicting a tense moment - and The Birds is as good - if not better - in print as Hitchcock's creepy adaptation, and i remember being as annoyed as hell by The Apple Tree, though couldn't tell you why. Once i've finished my current 179 books on the go i'll come back to it.

Daphne Du Maurier - Not After Midnight: Five Long Stories (Gollancz, 1971)

Flavia Tower

Don't Look Now
Not After Midnight
A Borderline Case
The Way Of The Cross
The Breakthrough

damn! no The Little Photographer!

[Jojo Lapin X]

Du Maurier was a genius, and happily everything she wrote appears to be in print currently. Although it is not horror by any means, I warmly recommend her identity-switch thriller THE SCAPEGOAT, which really should have been a 60s film by Claude Chabrol. I like to think I am jaded, but its ending had a deep emotional impact on me.

[stuyoung]

Currently reading Rebecca and recently picked up a discarded library copy of Not After Midnight.