The A-Z of Hitchcock, by Howard Maxford (B T Batsford £15.99)

LONG before special effects and computer-enhanced mayhem there was that old monster Alfred Hitchcock.

No student of film can be unfamiliar with the disturbingly possessed creature that was Tippi Hedren's Marnie or the tension of Frenzy, the study of unpleasantness whose ghost would reappear in countless subsequent bloodfests.

And Psycho. More than 40 years after Hitch created his beast-par-excellence, Norman Bates, shivers still run down countless spines at the very mention of that grim motel on the hill.

This A-Z covers his early work as a titles designer in the 1920s through to his classics, each of which is reviewed at length, complete with credit details and video, DVD and CD availability.

Wonderful stuff. So - fancy a shower, then?

John Phillpott