Craig Jackson: Charlie Higson and the rise of the zombie

The Authors Live programme was back with another exceptional children's author last Thursday. Charlie Higson, author of the Young Bond and The Enemy series, held the attention of thousands of pupils throughout Scotland with an incredible performance, although he got more than he bargained for when his live audience appeared. Craig Jackson, from the BBC, drops by the blog this week to talk about Authors Live with Charlie Higson.

In recent years, flesh-hungry corpses have crawled, lumbered, dragged and (sometimes controversially) sprinted their way from their graves and into popular culture. They have invaded the streets of some of the biggest cities in the world, they have interrupted reality TV, they have been the subject of countless films, they have provided impressive backup dancing in popular music videos, they have appeared in cartoons, video games, novels, art... even Jane Austin’s delectable Mr Darcy has had his run-ins with them.

So, it wasn’t surprising when around 40 zombies invaded BBC Scotland to take part in Authors Live with Charlie Higson on the 7^th of October. Please don’t be alarmed though, the zombies in the invasion were actually children from Hamilton Grammar and Airdrie Academy who had turned up to hear Charlie talk about The Enemy and his new book The Dead.

When Charlie burst onto the set he was well aware of the risk of being eaten alive if things didn’t go well, but Charlie was more than well prepared and held the zombies off with an excellent performance.

As well as reading an extract from The Dead, Charlie went into detail as to why zombies are just so terrifying; highlighting that the main reason they are so scary is because “they are us”. Their closeness to us greatly helps in securing their place at the bottom of the Uncanny Valley - certainly they were once very much like us and even still greatly resemble us, yet there are differences. It is these subtle differences that Charlie believes frightens us; we are seeing something we perceive to be familiar, but something just isn’t right.

In the Enemy series, Charlie forces us to consider that this grotesque and murderous fiend trying to feast on your flesh might even be the most beloved person in your life. This creates a very personal horror - it is an idea that is likely to send a shiver down the spine when reading Charlie’s books.

When writing the series,  Charlie had to ask ‘How scary can I make these?’ Using his son as a test, he would write and then read what he believed to be exceptionally scary, but his son refused to be scared and so Charlie continued to write with the aim of eventually keeping his son awake. It wasn’t until one morning that Charlie heard a scraping at his door and discovered his son in floods of tears causing Charlie to exploded; 'Yes! I got him.’ Finally, he had written something that was truly terrifying.  

It’s this thrill of being scared that encourages Charlie to write such terrifying descriptions of zombies, and it’s our desire to be scared that forces us to read books like Charlie’s The Enemy and The Dead.

As expected, Charlie’s life was spared with a brilliant live performance. If you missed out on watching the event, then don’t worry, you can watch again on our website or through BBC Learning.

If you're interested in finding out more information on zombies and their rise into popular culture, then check out the piece of writing Craig also provided us with! 

The next Authors Live event will feature Philip Pullman and will be broadcast live into your school, library or home on the 9^th of December. You can register now for the event!

Also, have a look at Heather’s excellent blog about the Charlie Higson event on the BBC Learning website.

You can find out some more about Authors Live and some of our previous events by reading blogs from Neil Scott, content producer at the BBC, and Alistair Mooney, from BBC Learning.

Why don't you also watch some of our previous events with; Michael Rosen, Julia Donaldson and Michael Morpurgo.

Watch the trailer for Charlie's new book The Dead now.

You can also view The Enemy trailer on Charlie's website.

Other news:

Are you stuck for something to do over the October holidays? Well, don't despair! The Scottish Storytelling Centre has a host of events to keep you busy over the holidays. Check out their website to plan for this weekend and get your tickets now!

You can also book tickets for any event by calling 0131 556 9579.

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