The Music of Zombies

Vivian French's The Music of Zombies is a comic fantasy for 10 year olds about a very vain prince, a very sneaky spy and a zombie who thinks he's a wonderful fiddler.

What happens

Prince Marcus falls asleep during his twin brother's first ever speech. Then he falls off his chair. In front of everyone! So he does what any of us would do and runs off to see his friend Gracie.

Over in Cockenzie Rood, a crook called Marley Bagsmith shuts a gardener in a shed and helps himself to the royal vegetables. When he bumps into Prince Albion, he talks his way into a brand new job as the prince's very own Royal Spy.

Albion is thrilled. He has BIG plans for Cockenzie Rood Day while his sensible cousin Hortense is away. There'll be a parade, a choir, a talent competition and a grand finale, all starring Albion, of course.

So who wants to enter? Fiddleduster Squint, that's who. He's a tall, skull-faced fiddler from over the border with zombie cousins called Mucus, Mildew and Corruption. His playing makes your brain go numb (his tunes include "Lament for a Dead Hedgehog"). He gets Marley so drunk at the Howling Arms that Marley promises him a place in the show. Then he leaves his own shadow behind to make sure Marley remembers.

This is the fifth Tales from the Five Kingdoms book, and all the favourites are here. There's Gracie, Gubble the troll, Marlon the bat and his nephew Alf, and the crones weaving scarlet cloaks for Albion's parade. By the end of the opening chapters, a magic path has whisked Marcus off to the wrong kingdom, with Gracie and Gubble tagging along by accident (Gracie still in her apron and slippers!).

The humour is quick and very silly. Albion's "super-duper" and Gubble's "Ug" are hard not to giggle at, and the grown-ups are every bit as ridiculous as the children.

A heads-up for parents. The Howling Arms is a grotty inn on the border, and there's a longish comic scene of Marley getting very drunk and slurring his words. The zombies are pretty gruesome to look at too, all bulging eyes, rags and a smell of mould. It's played entirely for laughs, but you might want to know it's there.

What to read next

For more of Marlon and Alf, The Bag of Bones opens with the two bats hanging in a tree above the witches of Wadingburn, just as a very unwelcome visitor joins their cauldron.