The Birds (story) The Birds (story) "The Birds" is a horror story by British writer Daphne du Maurier, first published in her 1952 collection "The Apple Tree". It is the story of a farmhand, his family, and his community that are attacked by flocks of birds and seabirds in "kamikaze" fashion. The story is set in du Maurier's native Cornwall shortly after the end of the Second World War. By the end of the story it becomes clear that all of Britain is under aerial assault. The story was the inspiration for Alfred Hitchcock's film "The Birds", released in 1963, the same year
The Birds (story) that "The Apple Tree" was reprinted as "The Birds and Other Stories". In 2009, Irish playwright Conor McPherson adapted the story for the stage at Dublin's Gate Theatre. The author saw a man ploughing a field while seagulls were wheeling and diving above him and composed a story of these birds growing hostile and attacking. Inspired by her quiet, rural home town in Cornwall, the story is thought to be an allegory for the air attacks on London during World War II, in particular The Blitz. The story has been dramatised for radio and TV on several occasions, including: In