Paperback. 60 pages. Published 1996.

The idea for this famous story came to du Maurier one day when she was walking across to "Menabilly Barton" farm from her house. She saw a farmer ploughing a field whilst above him the seagulls were diving and wheeling. She developed the idea about the birds becoming hostile and attacking him.

In her story, the birds become hostile after a harsh winter with little food, first the seagulls, then birds of prey and finally even small birds, all turn against mankind.

The nightmarish idea appealed to Alfred Hitchcock who turned it into a celebrated film. du Maurier disliked the film and particularly disliked the translation of the setting from Cornwall, with its small fields and stone hedges, to small-town America.

Wow!!! My only question is, did this story give Alfred Hitchcock his idea for his movie The Birds?? Cool story, the ending leaves you wanting more.

Okay, I didn't read Cackleberry's journal entry until after I made mine. Alfred Hitchcock did use her story for his movie. (I like the story better).

As usual the book is better than the movie (always, always ! except perhaps when the author pens the screenplay, a recent example of which is Holes by Louis Sachar - a great YA novel and movie, but I digress...)
I'm a Hitchcock fan and even he watered down the story to suit his vision. I think to enjoy both it's best to consider the movie and the short story as two very different unrelated entities.

As part of the International Women's day Bookbox, this book is traveling to milly1401 in Scotland.
Tucked inside are a few wee bookmark goodies to share. You are welcome to take one if you'd like and pass the others on to the next BCers in the bookring.
Going out today via Canada Post airmail.

I had read this once before many moons again. I'd forgotten just how chilling this story is.

This is the last of the International Bookbox books for me to read. I've pm'ed jianji, next on the list, for an address, but haven't heard back yet. I hope to take the bookbox to the US with me in my suitcase and post it from there. We leave on Sunday.

Well, that was just a terrific read. Those sixty pages just zipped along and I was sorry when it ended. Truly horrifying, but not in a way that keeps you from reading.

I don't like birds up close. Lovely to watch but they do have those beady eyes that inspire instant mistrust if they happen to be focused on you. When my ex-hubby and I were first married, we lived with his mother. She had a bird, Nicki. Nicki had the run of the house. Used to sit up on the curtain rod above the sink and torment me when I was washing the dishes. Nicki knew I didn't like her and would frequently fly at my head, flapping her wings into my hair and sending me into near hysterics.

I notice du Maurier didn't mention the budgies. They must have been the ones orchestrating from bird headquarters!

Interesting to read this famous story (I haven't seen the film but of course I've heard of it).

It reminds me a lot of some of John Wyndham's scenarios - the end of the world as we know it; a small home unit holding out against nature gone mega-wild, with national and global systems broken down and most people dead.

However, Wyndham generally ends with a hopeful future for his characters whereas I'm not at all sure how long du Maurier's characters will survive...