Daphne du Maurier of the "nation's best-loved novel" on the BBC's 2003 survey The Big Read. Other significant works include "The Scapegoat", "The House on the Strand", and "The King's General". The last is set in the middle of the first and second English Civil Wars, written from the Royalist perspective of Du Maurier's adopted Cornwall. Several of Du Maurier's other novels have also been adapted for the screen, including "Jamaica Inn", "Frenchman's Creek", "Hungry Hill", and "My Cousin Rachel". The Hitchcock film "The Birds" (1963) is based on a treatment of one of her short stories, as is the film "Don't Look
The Birds (film) he hired Evan Hunter to adapt Daphne du Maurier's novella, "The Birds", first published in her 1952 collection "The Apple Tree". Hunter had previously written "Vicious Circle" for "Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine", which he adapted for the television anthology series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents". He also adapted Robert Turner's story "Appointment at Eleven" for the same television series. Hunter later suspected that he was hired because he had demonstrated he could write suspense (with the 87th Precinct novels, as Ed McBain) and because his novel "The Blackboard Jungle" had received critical acclaim. The relationship between Hunter and Hitchcock during the creation