Master of children’s horror Darren Shan has sold more than 25 million books in 39 different countries, but he’s not resting on his laurels.

Far from slowing down or getting stuck in a rut, Darren has been working his way through an epic, 12-part story about a zombie invasion.

The ninth instalment, Zom-B Family came out at the end of September and the next, Zom-B Bride, is already on the way in February.

Darren, who will be signing copies of his books at Waterstones in Intu Bromley on Wednesday, said: “I got it into my head that I wanted to do something like the way books used to come out. If you go back to the times of Dickens, they used to serialise books and they used to come out every month mostly.

“You had the Sherlock Holmes books come out like that and it was just the way things were done in the old days.

“Stephen King did it a while ago when he released The Green Mile as six short books at swift intervals. I thought it might be fun to try a serial like that because it creates a different sense of pace and anticipation.”

Darren, who was born in south east London but moved to Limerick when he was six, has always been prolific. Over the last dozen or so years, he has averaged a book every six months but the Zom-B series required a new way of working.

He said: “It meant each book had to be short and each book had to be very fast paced and had to have a big cliffhanger which led you into the next story. It was an unusual challenge. I enjoyed doing it.”

Darren Shan will be signing copies of his books on Tuesday October 21 from 4.30pm at Waterstones at Intu, Bromley