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Daphne Du Maurier

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Reviewed

Read Time

8 min read

Age & reading levelAges 15+ · Older teens & adults
Reader rating

4.3

· 567 Amazon ratings, as of Oct 2026
reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score
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Our review

The Birds

The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier Review: Cornish Siege, Slow-Burning Dread

by Daphne Du Maurier

Daphne du Maurier's The Birds follows Nat Hocken, a disabled war veteran on the Cornish coast, as flocks of birds begin attacking his family and community. Books on the Hill calls it brilliantly written; it is the short story behind Hitchcock's film, and very different from it.

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Ages 15+repeated bird attacks on children and adults · bleak, unresolved ending

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Readers who want slow-building, atmospheric dread over action, and anyone curious how the original story differs from Hitchcock's film.

Worth it if

Worth reading if you enjoy restraint-driven suspense with a post-war siege mood and don't need the birds' behaviour explained.

Skip if

Skip it if you expect the film's set pieces or a tidy resolution, since the original is quieter, more claustrophobic and offers no explanation.

Books on the Hill calls the title story brilliantly written and effortless at building suspicion around the birds, while nsfordwriter.com rates the collection marvellous but judges the title story the most sinister rather than the best, saying its reputation overshadows the others.

Sources: Books on the Hill, nsfordwriter.com
4.3from 567 Amazon ratings, as of Oct 2026— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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Was this helpful?

The Birds is du Maurier's short story of coastal Cornwall under siege, collected here with five other tales. It rewards readers who prefer restraint-driven, claustrophobic dread over spectacle, though it gives no explanation for the attacks and is quieter than Hitchcock's film. Reviewers disagree on whether the title story is the collection's best.
Is it worth reading?
For readers who value mood over mechanics, yes. The story is short and sustains its unease without explaining anything. The caveats are real: reviewers split on whether the title story is the strongest here, and anyone expecting a tidy ending will be left hanging.
Similar books
For another du Maurier, Rebecca and Jamaica Inn deliver her gothic atmosphere at novel length. The Day of the Triffids and The Mist share the besieged-by-an-unexplained-threat setup. On our shelves, The Ruins and The Troop are modern horror novels built on dread and entrapment.
Who should read this?
Readers who like slow-building suspense and period atmosphere will get the most from it, as will anyone curious about the source of Hitchcock's film. It also suits newcomers to du Maurier's short fiction, since one reviewer calls the collection an ideal starting point. Fans of fast, set-piece horror may find it too quiet.
What age is it for?
Best for adult and mature teen readers, roughly 15 and up. The prose is accessible, but the story involves repeated attacks on children and a bleak, unresolved ending. Other stories in the collection deal with adult themes.
About Daphne Du Maurier
Dame Daphne du Maurier, Lady Browning, was an English novelist, biographer and playwright.
Tell me about the adaptation
Alfred Hitchcock's film of the same name was released in 1963, the same year the collection was reissued as The Birds and Other Stories. The story has also been staged: Conor McPherson's version played at Dublin's Gate Theatre in 2009. The original is very different from the film, being quieter and more claustrophobic.
What are the main themes?
The central themes are siege and helplessness, with the post-war setting echoing air raids and wartime memory. A study-guide reading also highlights the hubris of those who fail to grasp the threat, while one blogger finds Cold War paranoia. The birds' unexplained hostility keeps the focus on human response rather than cause.
Where should I start with this collection?
Read the title story first, since it is short and sets the tone. One reviewer then rates "The Apple Tree" as the collection's best, so it is worth reading next. "Monte Verità" is the long tale if you want something more sprawling.
Summarize this book

Summarize this book

Set on the Cornish coast just after the Second World War, the title story follows Nat Hocken, a disabled veteran who works part time on Mr Trigg's farm, as ordinary birds turn on people. The attacks escalate from a night assault on his children's bedroom to a national emergency, and the family boards itself into the kitchen. This 240-page edition also includes five other du Maurier stories, among them "The Apple Tree" and "Monte Verità".

Follow up

What are the other stories like?
Does the story explain the attacks?

Synthesized from verified book data & published reviews · How we review

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Our Review

We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.

Daphne du Maurier's short story turns a quiet Cornish coast into a siege, and its slow-building dread, not its shocks, is what has kept it in print for seventy years.
The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier front cover
The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier front cover

What happens in The Birds

The story opens in early December on the Cornish coast, shortly after the Second World War. Nat Hocken, a disabled war veteran, works part time on Mr Trigg's farm.
He notices unusually large flocks of birds behaving restlessly, and muses that they have received a message that winter is coming.
That night the weather turns bitterly cold, and a bird taps insistently at his bedroom window. When he opens it, half a dozen birds fly at his face and go for his eyes.
He rushes to his children's room to find more of them attacking, and he kills as many as he can with a blanket.
In the morning he clears up fifty dead robins, finches and other small birds. His neighbours do not believe him.
Walking to the beach, he realises that what looked like whitecaps are tens of thousands of gulls riding the waves, apparently waiting.
The BBC begins reporting birds massing across Britain. Nat boards up his cottage windows, and the family retreats to the kitchen as the assault intensifies.
Mr Trigg, unfazed by the official announcements, plans to shoot the birds for sport.

From short story to Hitchcock film

"The Birds" first appeared in 1952 in du Maurier's collection The Apple Tree. That book was reissued as The Birds and Other Stories in 1963, the year Alfred Hitchcock's film of the same name was released.
Wikipedia notes that she took her inspiration from the sight of a farmer being attacked by a flock of gulls as he ploughed a field.
The story has also been adapted for the stage: the Irish playwright Conor McPherson staged a version at Dublin's Gate Theatre in 2009. For readers who know only the film, the original is a different experience.
Books on the Hill, a bookshop review, notes that the short story is very different from the movie.
The edition under review is a Random House UK mass market paperback of 240 pages, which indicates the full six-story collection rather than the single story alone.

Where the dread comes from

The reviewers who write about the story at length single out its atmosphere. Books on the Hill praised du Maurier for building suspicion around the birds effortlessly: gulls hovering over the sea, small birds in the hedgerows watching as if awaiting orders.
That reviewer described the story as brilliantly written, and said it left them feeling a bird could be judging them.
The same review points to the argument between Nat and his wife as the heart of the predicament. A shotgun takes one bird at a time, and the authorities cannot fire into towns full of residents.
The birds, meanwhile, have brought down a plane, so machines offer no guarantee of safety.
The post-war setting matters here too. LitCharts, a study-guide site, reads the language of a "siege" and the echoes of air raids as tying the attacks to wartime memory and highlighting the hubris of those who fail to grasp the threat.
The author of the nsfordwriter.com blog reads Cold War paranoia into the story.

How it fares within the collection

The nsfordwriter.com blogger, who calls the collection marvellous, pushes back on the story's fame. In that reviewer's opinion, "The Birds" is the most sinister story in the book but not the best, and its reputation overshadows the others.
That reviewer rates the title story of the collection, "The Apple Tree," about a man haunted by a tree that resembles his late wife, as the strongest. The other stories include "Monte Verità," a long tale of a mountain cult of immortality, "The Little Photographer," Kiss Me Again, Stranger and "The Old Man."
The same reviewer calls the collection an ideal place to start with du Maurier's short fiction.
The blogger is also unimpressed by David Thomson's introduction to the 2004 Virago edition, which dwells on Hitchcock rather than du Maurier's other work. That is a different edition from the Random House paperback listed here.

Who it is for

The title story is short, roughly forty pages by Books on the Hill's estimate, depending on the edition. That makes it an easy first du Maurier for anyone curious about the source of the film.
It is a story of escalating menace with no explanation offered for the birds' behaviour.
Readers hoping for the film's set pieces or a tidy resolution should know the original is quieter and more claustrophobic. A reader after the full range of du Maurier's short fiction gets five other stories in this collection, with some reviewers judging several of them stronger than the title piece.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

  1. Cited in this review
  2. 1
    The Birds (story) - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org

  3. 2
    Daphne du Maurier

    dumaurier.org

  4. 3
    The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier - Penguin Books Australia

    penguin.com.au

  5. Further reading
  6. 4
    Daphne Du Maurier — author profile

    Daphne Du Maurier, LuvemBooks

  7. 5
    The Birds & Other Stories by Daphne du Maurier on J. Michaels Books

    jmichaelsbooks.com

  8. 6
    Katie Reviews The Birds by Daphne du Maurier — Books on the Hill

    books-on-the-hill.co.uk

  9. 7
    Review of 'The Birds and Other Stories' by Daphne du Maurier

    nsfordwriter.com

Age & Reading Level

Recommended age

Ages 15+

Reading level

Older teens & adults

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Content to know about

repeated bird attacks on children and adults
bleak, unresolved ending
sustained fear and threat to a family

Best for: Mature teens / adults, roughly 15+ — sustained dread and attacks on children

Skip if you want the film's set pieces or a story that explains and resolves its threat

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Books like The Birds

Curated picks for readers who enjoyed The Birds, with our reasoning for each match.

More by Daphne Du Maurier

On Amazon

Rebecca

Daphne du Maurier

Du Maurier's masterpiece trades Cornish bird attacks for a haunted estate, but keeps the same creeping dread and a heroine trapped by forces she can't name.

Rebecca follows a shy young bride who moves to Manderley and finds the house — and her husband — still ruled by his dead first wife. It swaps the open menace of The Birds by Daphne Du Maurier for psychological suspense, but the pacing, the Cornish atmosphere, and the sense of nature pressing in on the characters are unmistakably the same writer. Best for readers who want du Maurier at full novel length.

On Amazon

Jamaica Inn

Daphne du Maurier

Same Cornish coast, now with wreckers and smugglers instead of gulls — a faster, more adventure-driven du Maurier that still feels windswept and dangerous.

If you liked The Birds

In our catalogue

The Ruins

Scott Smith

Nature as the predator: tourists trapped in the Mexican jungle by something growing that cannot be reasoned with or escaped.

On Amazon

The Day of the Triffids

John Wyndham

The classic British catastrophe novel: ordinary people, an unexplained natural revolt, and survival figured out one hard day at a time.

On Amazon

The Mist

Stephen King

A novella-length siege story: unexplained forces outside, terrified families inside, and no promise that anyone gets answers.

Not your thing?

In our catalogue

The Troop

Nick Cutter

If the story felt too brief and unresolved, this is the opposite: a fast, brutal, fully explained survival horror that never stops moving.