Know the Type: The Shining

Welcome back to our series celebrating authors through readings of their most famous works! Things are taking a turn for the terrifying this week, however, as we celebrate a selection of Halloween horrors…
Written in 1977, The Shining is Stephen King’s third published novel, and his first to be a hardback bestseller - cementing his place as a prolific horror writer. Based on King’s stay at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado in 1974 - where he and his wife Tabitha were the only guests - the idea came to him from an evening spent at the dining room, where only their table was set, a single menu item was available and orchestral music was played on a tape. In King’s own words: “"Except for our table all the chairs were up on the tables. So the music is echoing down the hall, and, I mean, it was like God had put me there to hear that and see those things. And by the time I went to bed that night, I had the whole book in my mind."
Adapted into a seminal film by Stanley Kubrick in 1980, a 1997 television miniseries, and a 2016 opera, please enjoy this extract from the book that first brought the Torrance family to prominence.
(Music by Zapsplat.com)