Daphne du Maurier

One of my favorite books is "Rebecca," by du Maurier.  It's also one of my favorite old movies, which I saw for the first time on a late-night TV movie program that I used to watch with my Aunt Dolly.  Everyone else in the house would be sound asleep and Aunt Dolly and I would watch the old black-and-white movies that began after the late news in NY.  I was probably the only kid in my class who could recognize all the 'old Hollywood' stars.  Aunt Dolly is 100 now, still watching old movies, and still saying "They don't make movies like this anymore." 

I recently read that the Alfred Hitchcock movie "The Birds" was based on a short story by du Maurier, of the same title.  I had no idea she wrote that story.  Same goes for "Jamaica Inn," another one of her short stories that was made into a movie by Hitchcock.  I found those books on the Internet and have just ordered them, along with a vintage copy of du Maurier's "Frenchman's Creek."  Can't remember the last time I saw the movie "The Birds."  No one did mystery and suspense as well as Hitchcock.  No special effects, no crazy stunts, just honest-to-goodness acting from excellent screenplays.

Just last week, I found a book of short stories by du Maurier at the thrift store.... the title is "The Doll" and it has quite a few of "the lost stories" of that author. I picked up that book because of the Gibson-girl-ish photograph on the cover, and of course the du Maurier name sealed the deal.                   

Every book under the sun eventually turns up in that thrift store. That's how I discovered the British author Beverley Nichols........ one of his gardening memoirs was on their shelf and I bought it just because of the title.  Since then, I've read all of his memoirs and I just love them. I've read some of them more than once, and have given copies as gifts.  Mr. Nichols holds pride-of-place on one of the bookcases in my library upstairs.

There are times when judging a book by its cover is a good thing.