35 years ago my life changed. I was going on a tennis holiday, early start so spent the night before at Dom’s place in Maida Vale. He called it ‘Little Venice’ but he’s always been a pretentious fucker. And I didn’t have a book to take away. So he gave me a book. Firestarter. Stephen King. Nah, I said, I don’t like ‘horror’. It’s not horror, its Stephen King.

And that correction of the most common literary misunderstanding, changed my life. Because Firestarter, not his best book but still about 50 times better than most other books by most other authors, was fantastic. Supernatural, but not horror. And I don’t mind ‘supernatural’. People, normally kids, with ‘powers’. Ok, X-men is all the rage now, the tv series ‘Heroes’, Marvel stuff, DC comic characters, absolutely EVERYONE has something they can do that is freaky, weird, bizarre or incredible. But Firestarter was just a little girl, played in the very so-so movie later on by an incredibly cute Drew Barrymore, aged about 6, who could burn down a skyscraper from 100 yards just by looking at it. Nothing unusual there.

Then I read other Kings. All of them, in fact. Some are ‘horror’, but very few. Is The Shining ‘horror’??? Carrie?

Stephen King is the best selling author in the world. Not because people like ‘horror’ and ‘gore’, not even for the supernatural. He’s the best selling author because he writes about people better than anyone else. Just normal, common or garden, people. And relationships between them. Particularly when those relationships are forced by circumstances. Some of which can enter the ‘horrific’.

And King writes about kids. Especially about ‘geeky’ kids, poor kids, abused kids, kids with lisps, thick glasses, red hair, limps. The kids others make fun of. With whom, as a very poor kid with thick glasses, he has so much empathy. These ‘geeks’, the ones never on the A-list at school, never part of any ‘cool set’, are always the heroes in his books. Like in ‘It’. Which does have some horror but is a book about relationships between past and then former geeky kids. Like The Stand, which is just fucking brilliant. And like the geekiest of poor, abused kids, Carrie. King gives these poor souls revenge. Which can, I grant you, get a bit horrific at times.

And like The Institution, which I’m nearly finished and already getting sad that then I’ll have to wait another few months for another (King is nothing if not prolific). It doesn’t matter what the story’s about; its always about the way its written, the way the characters develop and the relationships between them, the way the plot moves, which makes it totally un-put-downable.

So if you’re a reader but ‘don’t read Stephen King because I don’t like horror’, you could do much worse than read The Institution. And remember; King also wrote The Shawshank Redemption.

I just had to tell you. Because I’m bored with politics and unimpressed by football so far this weekend. Other than Bournemouth’s win at Chelsea, obviously. And I am evangelical about Le King. In case you missed that.

Happy Sunday, day 3 in the reign of King Boris.

A xxxx