Daphne du Maurier Daphne du Maurier Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, (; 13 May 1907 – 19 April 1989) was an English author and playwright. Although she is classed as a romantic novelist, her stories have been described as "moody and resonant" with overtones of the paranormal. Her bestselling works were not at first taken seriously by critics, but have since earned an enduring reputation for narrative craft. Many have been successfully adapted into films, including the novels "Rebecca", "My Cousin Rachel", and "Jamaica Inn", and the short stories "The Birds" and "Don't Look Now/Not After Midnight". Du Maurier spent much of
Philip MacDonald and Michael Hogan adapted the novel "Rebecca" by Daphne du Maurier, from which Robert E. Sherwood and Joan Harrison created the screenplay for "Rebecca", the 1940 film. Sherwood and Harrison were nominated for an Academy Award. In later years MacDonald wrote television scripts for "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" ("Malice Domestic", 1957) and "Perry Mason" ("The Case of the Terrified Typist", 1958). His novel "Patrol" was issued as one of the first twenty Penguin Books, and, as "W.J. Stuart", he wrote the novelisation of the 1956 science fiction film "Forbidden Planet". MacDonald also infrequently dabbled in science fiction under his own name,