The Wicker Man Robin Hardy 9781447263210

First published in 1978, five years after the release of the classic horror film from which it is adapted, The Wicker Man by director Robin Hardy and screenwriter Anthony Shaffer, is a gripping horror classic.

A novelization of the haunting Anthony Shaffer script, which drew from David Pinner's Ritual, it is the tale of Highlands policeman, Police Sergeant Neil Howie, on the trail of a missing girl being lured to the remote Scottish island of Summerisle. As May Day approaches, strange, magical, shamanistic and erotic events erupt around him. He is convinced that the girl has been abducted for human sacrifice. Yet he is soon to find that he may be the revellers' quarry . . .

Anthony Shaffer is the author of the original stage and film versions of Sleuth, cult horror The Wicker Man and Hitchcock's suspense thriller Frenzy. Before becoming a playwright, he worked as a barrister. He formed one of the most influential commercial production companies, Hardy Shaffer Ferguson Avery with Robin Hardy, who he would later collaborate with for The Wicker Man. After the cult success of The Wicker Man, Shaffer had a prolific career as an author and playwright until his death in 2001.

Robin Hardy began his directorial career making television drama in the US and Canada. He returned to London in the 1960s, working at Hardy Shaffer Ferguson. Hardy as directed, produced a number of films, and is also the author of several historical novels.