Du MAURIER, Daphne

(1907-1989)

   UK writer, granddaughter of George DU MAURIER, famous for dark-hued romances (like Rebecca [1938]), usually set in Cornwall and often - like her first, The Loving Spirit (1931), a ghost story - tinged with the supernatural; drugs send the protagonist of The House on the Strand (1969) into medieval Cornwall. Her one sf novel, Rule Britannia (1972), subjects a NEAR FUTURE Cornwall to US INVASION, during which the natives rebel against the tasteless Yankees. Among DDM's short stories are "The Birds", from The Apple Tree: A Short Novel and Some Stories (coll 1952; vt Kiss Me Again, Stranger 1953 US; vt The Birds and Other Stories 1963 UK), which was made by Alfred Hitchcock into The BIRDS (1963), and "Don't Look Now", from Not After Midnight (coll 1971; vt Don't Look Now 1971 US), which Nicholas Roeg filmed as Don't Look Now (1973).

   JC

   Other works include: The Breaking Point: Eight Stories (coll 1959; vt The Blue Lenses, and Other Stories 1970); Echoes from the Macabre: Selected Stories (coll 1976); Classics of the Macabre (coll 1987; vt Daphne Du Maurier's Classics of the Macabre 1987 US).