In The Dark Tower, a boy called Jake is drawn into another world, and might be the key to saving it.

In The Talisman, a boy called Jack must travel across two versions of the US, his own and a magical one, to save his mother. I am a fan of all (apart from the truly wacky: no thank you, Christine and Dreamcatcher), but my very favourite sort of King is his fantasy, from The Talisman (co-written with Peter Straub) to the Dark Tower series. There are many different kinds of King novels, from the classic horror of It, Salem’s Lot and The Shining, to the dystopia of The Running Man and The Long Walk, the detective stories of Mr Mercedes and its sequels, and the psychological thriller that is Misery. What I wanted was to get my dog and go home.” “Did I want to be the prince in this dark fairy tale? I did not. There are talking horses and goose girls and intelligent crickets, but there is something malign at the centre, and Charlie must face it if he wants to get back to his dad. When Charlie eventually makes his way into the other world, he finds it peopled by men and women whose faces are grey and disfigured, their features almost blurred out of existence. It’s coming-of-age stuff – although with the promise of something fantastical on the horizon, thanks to the “weird chittering noise” that comes from Mr Bowditch’s shed, and the mysterious tub of gold pellets in his safe. Fairy Tale starts firmly in our world, as Charlie grieves over his mother’s death, cares for his alcoholic father, slips into a well of bad behaviour and then pulls himself out with good grades and a talent for sport. These images, he says, “released the story I wanted to tell” – although it takes him a long time to get there.

King wrote Fairy Tale in the thick of the pandemic after, he writes, seeing a mental image of “a vast deserted city – deserted but alive … the empty streets, the haunted buildings, a gargoyle head lying overturned in the street … a huge, sprawling palace with glass towers so high their tips pierced the clouds”. Which, as this is a Stephen King novel, sits on a tunnel leading to a mysterious world in need of saving from a horrifying evil. The sort who helps strangers in need – such as the misanthropic Mr Bowditch, who has an equally elderly dog and a crumbling property. His mother died in a terrible accident when he was young, and his father turned to drink, but Charlie grew up to be a good, strong, clever young man.

O nce upon a time there was a boy called Charlie.

The Talisman by Stephen King