The sequel to Stephen King's iconic horror novel The Shining will be released next year.

A post on King's official website revealed that Doctor Sleep is currently scheduled for publication in the United States on 24 September.

"Scribner and Hodder & Stoughton have established 24 September as the official first publication date for Doctor Sleep, a sequel to The Shining," the note read.

The Shining was published in 1977 and was adapted by Stanley Kubrick into a film starring Jack Nicholson in 1980.

A synopsis of Doctor Sleep posted on King's website reads: "On highways across America, a tribe of people called The True Knot travel in search of sustenance. They look harmless – mostly old, lots of polyester, and married to their RVs. But as Dan Torrance knows, and tween Abra Stone learns, The True Knot are quasi-immortal, living off the 'steam' that children with the 'shining' produce when they are slowly tortured to death.

"Haunted by the inhabitants of the Overlook Hotel where he spent one horrific childhood year, Dan has been drifting for decades, desperate to shed his father’s legacy of despair, alcoholism, and violence. Finally, he settles in a New Hampshire town, an AA community that sustains him, and a job at a nursing home where his remnant 'shining' power provides the crucial final comfort to the dying. Aided by a prescient cat, he becomes 'Doctor Sleep'.

"Then Dan meets the evanescent Abra Stone, and it is her spectacular gift, the brightest shining ever seen, that reignites Dan’s own demons and summons him to a battle for Abra’s soul and survival."