
Alfred Hitchcock remains the most famous of film-makers. Why was he so successful in enticing us to share his fears and desires? Cultural critic Peter Conrad can date the start of his Hitchcock obsession to his first boyhood viewing of Hitchcock's Psycho , one afternoon in Tasmania...

This is a work of cultural criticism that explores the enduring power that Hitchcock's imagination has exerted - and still exerts - over us. Not just a biography or a study of his films, this work should fascinate and delight the millions of Hitchcock fans around the world.