Don't Look Now

Classic horror stories by one of masters of the form. Full of bone-chilling tales, this collection includes The Birds, the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same title, and other creepy classics. Daphne du Maurier wrote some of the most compelling and creepy novels of the twentieth century. In books like Rebecca , My Cousin Rachel , and Jamaica Inn she transformed the small dramas of everyday life--love, grief, jealousy--into the stuff of nightmares. Less known, though no less powerful, are her short stories, in which she gave free rein to her imagination in narratives of unflagging suspense. Patrick McGrath's revelatory new selection of du Maurier's stories shows her at her most chilling and most psychologically astute: a dead child reappears in the alleyways of Venice; routine eye surgery reveals the beast within to a meek housewife; nature revolts against man's abuse by turning a benign species into an annihilating force; a dalliance with a beautiful stranger offers something more dangerous than a broken heart. McGrath draws on the whole of du Maurier's long career and includes surprising discoveries together with famous stories like "The Birds." Don't Look Now is a perfect introduction to a peerless storyteller.

Classic horror stories by one of masters of the form. Full of bone-chilling tales, this collection includes The Birds, the basis for the Alfred Hitchcock film of the same title, and other creepy classics. Daphne du Maurier wrote some of the most compelling and creepy novels of the twentieth century. In books like Rebecca , My Cousin Rachel , and Jamaica Inn she transformed the small dramas of everyday life--love, grief, jealousy--into the stuff of nightmares. Less known, though no less powerful, are her short stories, in which she gave free rein to her imagination in narratives of unflagging suspense. Patrick McGrath's revelatory new selection of du Maurier's stories shows her at her most chilling and most psychologically astute: a dead child reappears in the alleyways of Venice; routine eye surgery reveals the beast within to a meek housewife; nature revolts against man's abuse by turning a benign species into an annihilating force; a dalliance with a beautiful stranger offers something more dangerous than a broken heart. McGrath draws on the whole of du Maurier's long career and includes surprising discoveries together with famous stories like "The Birds." Don't Look Now is a perfect introduction to a peerless storyteller.

Following the death of their young daughter, John and Laura visit Venice to try and escape their grief. But when the couple meet two aged sisters, one of them claims to have psychic visions of the dead girl. Tension mounts as John and Laura are led through a maze of canals and alleyways towards a dark and terrifying climax. Lucy Bailey, director of "Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare's Globe", and award-winning playwright Nell Leyshon join forces again following the acclaimed "Comfort me with Apples" to bring a new adaptation of this cult supernatural thriller to the stage. A Sheffield Theatres production, "Don't Look Now" opens at the Lyric Hammersmith in March 2007.