She wrote the best first line - and the most chilling stories: Stephen King on the dark brilliance of Daphne du Maurier

From Rebecca to The Birds and scores of creepy short stories, Du Maurier was queen of the uncanny, writes the US horror maestroLast night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. Itsone of the most well-known first lines ever written in a novel. Certainly the most memorable; I used it myself as an epigram in my novel Bag of Bones. Daphne du Maurier also wrote what may be the best first line in a tale of theuncanny and outre. Her classic story The Birds opens with this: OnDecember the third the wind c...