The Shining

“I’m a Halloween baby so being scared is in my blood, and Stephen King is the first person I ever read who really, really frightened me. The Shining is about a small family who go to stay in a hotel over the winter as caretakers. If you think you know the story because you’ve seen the film then you’d be wrong. This book is an absolute classic and a great way into the vast King oeuvre.” Read more...

Daisy Johnson on Books That Influenced Her

Daisy Johnson, Novelist

” The Shining was the first book which impinged on me and made me so aware of the emotive power of literature. I have always rated Stephen King. I think he is so much more than just a commercially successful horror writer. He can take the banal and present it in such as way that it becomes actually terrifying. And he did that by getting you to believe in the reality of the characters that he created. And I think that is his true strength.” Read more...

The best books on Human Dramas

R J Ellory, Novelist