Stephen King is a genius . . . In this book he tells us what first made him a horror writer . . . I find King fascinating because he writes in the least florid way possible, yet his very direct approach to getting his awesome imagination onto a blank page works. * Jeremy Vine in We Love This Book * This is the written equivalent of Delia Smith's How To Cook. And, like British home cooking, the world of popular fiction will be better off for it * The Times * The childhood memoir is a triumphant display of wit, story-telling and guts. His advice to writers is hard-nosed, practical and level-headed in the classic journalistic Orwell-Hemingway tradition * Evening Standard * Absolutely fascinating . . . basic instructions . . . sensible advice * The Sunday Times *

Not since Dickens has a writer had so many readers by the throat ...king's imagination is vast.