Woodside School Soppy Birthday No 4 Author:Jean Ure Ben was a member of the Zombies, a gang of boys who thought that birthdays were 'soppy' and spent much of their time annoying the girls in class 5. Ben more than anything else wanted a recorder for his birthday, but of course he had to keep very quiet about it. When his birthday came around, he got rather more than he had bargained for!