How Carrie changed Stephen King's life, and began a generation of horror

Writers and readers recall the shock of reading the debut novel about a high-school outcast who discovers paranormal powers, and reflect on its huge influence

"Plug it up, plug it up," yell Carrie's classmates in the extraordinary opening to Stephen King's debut novel. Carietta White, bullied for years at school, the daughter of a domineering, ultra-religious mother and the owner of unsuspected telekinetic powers, has just got her first period at the age of 16 while in the showers at school, and thinks she is bleeding to death.