Zombies invade Broad Street bookshop
 

Bloodthirsty zombies invaded a Broad Street bookshop on Monday to track down their favourite author.

Preparing for Hallowe’en in style, Waterstones held a fan event with Darren Shan, featuring the first book in his new series for teenagers – ‘Zom-B’, about a zombie apocalypse.

Zombie master Darren Shan is coming to Reading

Scores of the shambling undead filled the store to hear Darren talk about the book and ask him to sign their copies of the grisly tale.

A competition was held to find the most outstanding zombie, with the winner of this apocalyptic accolade scooping a framed Darren Shan poster. Runners-up received T-shirts.

Waterstones’ Cheryl Dibden said: “It was an amazing event with over 100 people turning up, many in full zombie attire, including the staff.

“Darren was on fantastic form, spending so long with each of his fans that the book signing took an hour and a half.

“He had a very interactive audience asking some quality questions, including ‘which character from your books would you go on holiday with and where would you go?’.

“And for the record, the answer was Truska the bearded lady from [his book] Cirque du Freak and he’d go anywhere with her.”

Shan’s fantasy and horror books are available in 39 countries in 31 languages, selling more than 25 million copies worldwide.

His most famous series include the ‘Saga of Darren Shan’, ‘Demonata’ and the ‘Saga of Larten Crepsley’.

Speaking about ‘Zom-B’, published last Thursday, Shan said: “It’s a big, sprawling, vicious tale... a grisly piece of escapism, and a barbed look at the world in which we live. Each book in the series is short, fast-paced and bloody.

“A high body-count is guaranteed.”