It’s all very well some ill-informed nutter writing about zombies and vampires, using 5 minutes worth of research obtained from the internet. After all anyone can do it. Ask me how.

But any writer of worth and low self-esteem knows that every once in a while, you must lay down the keyboard and allow an expert on the subject at hand to sweep through the filth and lies you managed to weave and lead the readers down a less soggy path to enlightenment.

Given his recent experiences, I could think of no-one finer to consult than Ben Muir aka Dr. Dale, one of the evil geniuses behind “How to Survive a Zombie Apocalypse” who along with David Ash, Jessica Napthine & Lee Cooper, has entertained literally people up and down the country.

Given that the show was a huge success, again illustrating the changing trends of the public towards such subjects, Ben was a perfect choice to ask the question of why zombies have made it to the big time right now;

Not surprisingly, this is a question that comes up all the time when we’re being interviewed regards the show and our interest in zombies – and thankfully, earlier this year we met a University Professor who actually answered the question in a very scientific way so that we always sound rather intelligent when we answer it! (Although now I’ve given away the fact that someone else told us – it makes us sound less so…. But anyway – this is his explanation)

It’s human nature to enjoy being scared in a ‘safe’ environment. The adrenalin rush and the anticipation is something that is just built in to the human psyche – otherwise, why would theme parks with death defying rides and horror movies be so popular.

With that in mind, the psychology department at some University somewhere (I would credit them if I could remember) did research into what us mere humans found the scariest – and it seems that the more human a threat is – the more scared of it we are.

The more similar it is to our own image the more terrifying we find it. Hence the reason why clowns and those freaky Victorian porcelain dolls also rated highly. That coupled with the fact that they are almost seemingly unstoppable (apart from the old bullet to the noggin) makes them something to be truly feared and therefore as they aren’t real (yet) something to be enjoyed too!

Of course, this theory is all well and good except it doesn’t really explain why so many people are also afraid of spiders (unless the human race is descended from a race of spider people – which could be true…… but then again, there are also people who are scared of buttons – which really doesn’t make sense at all – unless they had a serious mind scarring event with Mr Spoon in their childhood – I’m digressing….)

The other thing that I personally like about zombies is that there are so many inventive ways that you can dispose of them – yes you have to go for the brain – but there are just so many different and varied ways that you can come up with to do that and from a moral standpoint – as they are dead and feel no pain, it’s perfectly acceptable to do so!

So – that’s my two theories on the subject – the third could just be that there is so much excellent zombie fiction around in the genre at the moment that it is not just the genre but the presentation – but, of course, I would say that, wouldn’t I!

So there you have it folks, from a dirty desk behind the trenches, it’s certainly brain food for thought, which will please the undead hordes no end.

For further information on the vast subject of not alive people shambling about, you could do far worse than to catch the further adventures of Dr. Dale and the team at http://howtosurviveazombieapocalypse.co.uk/ where I’m sure they will discuss what size coconut can be used as a defensive weapon in the near future.