Book review
Written by Dr Dale Seslick
Allison & Busby paperback
Release date 1 August 2010

Dr Dale – world-renowned expert in Zombology – tells you everything you need to know about the walking dead, and offers tips on what to do in the event of a zombie apocalypse…

Following the sold-out show How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse – a spoof seminar in which the cool and collected Dr Dale and his hapless assistants offer advice on what to do when the dead rise from their graves – here’s an A-Z Guide that condenses much of the material from the show, along with additional facts and tangled tangents.

So as well as the zombie basics – see ‘Chainsaws’, ‘Quarantine’ and ‘Decapitation’ – you get less obvious entries such as ‘Energy Bars’ (“The perfect meal supplement… and perfect for barricade building”), ‘Giraffes’ (“Using a giraffe as a ladder as well as a mode of transport will allow you to reach windows on the first and second floors of buildings”) and ‘Ventriloquism’ (“A useful technique when you are being attacked and need to draw a zombie away from you”).

Like the seminar show, The Zombie Dictionary amusingly taps into the current obsession with all things zombie, ramping up genre conventions to ridiculous levels, without simply mocking zombies or zombie fans.

With so many entries, it’s inevitable that some are funnier than others, but the hits outweigh the misses. And the book smartly deviates from the simple A-Z brief, with entries consisting of quizzes, illustrations and dialogue exchanges, along with an intro that outlines the basic rules. Remember: There is no cure. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 8/10
Whether you’re someone who spends more hours playing Left 4 Dead than sleeping or you just want advice on how to survive the impending zombie apocalypse, this book is required reading.