Cornwall his novels are mainly set in Cornwall. Daphne du Maurier lived at Menabilly near Fowey and many of her novels had Cornish settings, including "Rebecca", "Jamaica Inn", "Frenchman's Creek", "My Cousin Rachel", and "The House on the Strand". She is also noted for writing "Vanishing Cornwall". Cornwall provided the inspiration for "The Birds", one of her terrifying series of short stories, made famous as a film by Alfred Hitchcock. Medieval Cornwall is the setting of the trilogy by Monica Furlong, "Wise Child", "Juniper", and "Colman", as well as part of Charles Kingsley's "Hereward the Wake". Conan Doyle's "The Adventure of
Joan Fontaine George Cukor gave her a small role in MGM's "The Women" (1939). Fontaine's luck changed one night at a dinner party when she found herself seated next to producer David O. Selznick. Selznick and she began discussing the Daphne du Maurier novel "Rebecca", and Selznick asked her to audition for the part of the unnamed heroine. She endured a grueling six-month series of film tests, along with hundreds of other actresses, before securing the part sometime before her 22nd birthday. "Rebecca" (1940), starring Laurence Olivier alongside Fontaine, marked the American debut of British director Alfred Hitchcock. The film was released