Benjamin Britten the apex of his reputation: it was almost universally hailed as a masterpiece." Shostakovich told Rostropovich that he believed it to be "the greatest work of the twentieth century". In 1967 the BBC commissioned Britten to write an opera specially for television. "Owen Wingrave" was based, like "The Turn of the Screw", on a ghost story by Henry James. By the 1960s Britten found composition much slower than in his prolific youth; he told the 28-year-old composer Nicholas Maw, "Get as much done now as you can, because it gets much, much more difficult as you grow older." He did
The Turn of the Screw Tintner include "The Secret Garden" (1911), by Frances Hodgson Burnett; "Poor Girl" (1951), by Elizabeth Taylor; "The Peacock Spring" (1975), by Rumer Godden; "Ghost Story" (1975) by Peter Straub; "The Accursed Inhabitants of House Bly" (1994) by Joyce Carol Oates; and "Miles and Flora" (1997)—a sequel—by Hilary Bailey. Further literary adaptations identified by other authors include "Affinity" (1999), by Sarah Waters; "A Jealous Ghost" (2005), by A. N. Wilson; and "Florence & Giles" (2010), by John Harding. Young adult novels inspired by "The Turn of the Screw" include "The Turning" (2012) by Francine Prose and "Tighter" (2011) by Adele Griffin.