Swindon pupils enjoy a scarily good time with top author Darren Shan

SCARY stories were the lesson of the day for hundreds of pupils when a teen horror writer paid them a visit.

Darren Shan spoke to 300 Year 8 students from 11 secondary schools around Swindon at Nova Hreod on Monday.

The author was launching his newest set of stories based on zombies, which will be a series of 12 stories published every three months to keep the reader in suspense.

Alison Slaven, learning resource centre manager at Nova Hreod, said the school was excited to be hosting the multi-school event as it was one of only a few taking place in Darren’s tour.

“Our students gained a great deal from the chance to hear a fabulous author in the guise of Darren, who has a charismatic presence on the stage but connects directly with the students,” she said.

“He was a big hit, especially with the large crowd of students who waited patiently to have a book individually signed and addressed to them.”

Zom-B, which is part of the series, is available now and Zom-B Underground is due out soon.

The audience asked Darren about his motivation for writing about the macabre and scary, what prompted him to write, who had inspired him and how he felt about his books being made into films.
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Year 8 pupil, Keiran, said: ” I really enjoyed his earlier book Cirque du Freak and am looking forward to reading my signed copy of Zom-B.

“I was lucky to be part of the audience today.”