The Birds and Other Stories | Paperback

The six short stories in this book are:

1) 'The Birds', where birds suddenly become aggressive and start attacking people.
2) 'Monte Verita', where a man loses his wife mysteriously on a mountain.
3) 'The Apple Tree', where a self-obsessed widower starts to perceive something horrible in his apple tree.
4) 'The Little Photographer', where a beautiful, selfish woman starts a casual affair with a man who is not so casual.
5) 'Kiss Me Again, Stranger', where a man forms a rather fast attachment to a girl with a disturbing secret.
6) 'The Old Man', where a head of a family is pushed to the edge of what he will tolerate by his young son.

These are marvellous, darkly atmospheric tales which I thoroughly enjoyed. The Birds is one of the shorter stories at an economical 40 pages. There is also an introduction by David Thomson in which he describes the close and friendly relationship between the Du Maurier family and Alfred Hitchcock.

The collection conatains six short stories including The Birds which was later adapted successfully for the screen by Hitchcock. The other stories are just as good though, with a slight superntural theme running through them and it should only be a matter of time before these make the leap from page to screen. The stories are entertaining and genuinely creepy. Fantastic.