The world from my window

On Halloween, I head out under the cover of darkness, a tub of sweets by the front door for young trick or treaters on the prowl with their parents, waiting in the shadows. The theory is that if we get any fancy-dressed callers, then Mr Grigg can deal with them while I'm out. I'm off to Dorchester to see Doctor Sleep , Stephen King's follow up to The Shining . I enjoyed the book but it's nowhere near as focused and tight as its predecessor, which I've also read, so I'm interested to see what the film is like. To be honest, I'm not a fan of horror movies. Why pay to be scared witless or to have sleepless nights for days to come? But it's only a 15 rating, so it can't be that bad. My brother and sister-in-law pick me up and we make our to way to Dorchester, the mist a-swirling and the rain a-drizzling, perfect conditions for the witching hour. We enjoy a great pizza from the wood-fired oven of Basilico , a new, unpretentious and independ...

It'll be World Book Night in a week's time and I'm getting excited because I've just been notified my books are ready for collection. Twenty four copies of Stephen King's Misery will be winging their way to the unsuspecting. The book features just two characters but is one of the most powerful stories I've ever read. It's tense, intense, chilling and thrilling. It's electrifying. King's prose is crystal clear, stripped bare and straight to the point. None of that cockadoodee nonsense for me. No siree. Hell, I'm his Number One Fan. I'm giving it away to some of the snobbier members of my book club, who dismiss Stephen King as 'that horror writer', and via the mobile office of an organisation whose customers might well have seen the film but never read the book. World Book Night will also be a bit of a celebration for me. I've had a piece of work chosen for Dorset Voices , a new collection of prose, poetry and photogra...