This was excellent! I've seen the film adaptation, and really enjoyed it, so when I saw this on my mum's bookshelf (she's a big du Maurier fan) I thought I'd read it - "The Birds" is only a novelette, so it didn't take long.

It's very different to the film. A lot more focused, a lot more claustrophobic: just a farm worker, his wife, and their two small children, huddled inside the house and hoping for the birds to go away. The end is particularly interesting, left open and ambiguous as it is. That's not unusual for good horror, which specialises in letting readers imagine the worst (a cunning plan, given that "the worst" is often dependent on the individual). Anyway, I was sad when it ended. I could happily have read on, but have to admit that this is small and perfectly formed the way that it is. It really is the perfect literary example of "atmospheric."