I'm most likely to be in my home when I hear of a zombie outbreak, which is about 20 miles from the coast, in a village on the outskirts of a big city.

Zombies will obviously go for the largest density of people, e.g. the city centre, the mall, supermarkets, so I certainly won't attempt to raid any of these. Hopefully, I will be able to track the zombies' progress towards my cul-de-sac using the TV or internet.

I'll take the food from my cupboards and fridge and load them into the boot of the car (a family supermini). This is to sustain me and my family should we have to stop for a while - it is not a long-term solution.

Then the camping stuff: conveniently it's all packed together upstairs. This includes tents, sleeping bags, matches and lighter, small gas stove (and a couple of canisters), portable cooking stuff and a 5 litre water container. There are a couple of other things in the camping pack, like outdoor games and a torch, which may be dropped if portability becomes an issue.

Edit: If there's time we'll grab some changes of clothes (coarse stuff, denim and leather particularly) and the contents of the medicine cabinet.

As this is the UK, guns are not generally available. The military have guns, but I'd imagine they would be using them to fight the zombie horde already. Besides, the nearest army base is towards town. Therefore, garden tools, kitchen knives, and the car itself will suffice as weapons.

The number of cars attempting to leave the city will mean the roads are likely to be clogged up. While my car is by no means an off-roader, it would probably manage the one-mile 'shortcut' - cycle path, churchyard, village green, cycle path - to the nearest 4x4 garage, where I should be able to commandeer a more suitable mode of transport, preferably by driving through the showroom window.

(Transferring people and contents to a nice chunky jeep will be a dangerous venture, so if zombies are closing in I may have to skip the above step.)

Edit: Given my relative unarmedness at this point, I will probably pay for the 4x4. I won't be needing any money for a while, and it'll speed up the process of persuading the garage owner to hand over the keys. A suitably-greased palm will probably encourage him to help me transfer the contents of my car into my new vehicle's boot, too.

I'll cut across the airfield to the petrol station, fill up, then head west through the fields. (The motorway is likely to be stationary with traffic, and staying still for too long is inadvisable.) Hopefully, it will take me less than half an hour to reach the coast, as the car doesn't have to last. On getting there, however, time will be of the essence to get hold of any type of boat - either by breaking into a marina or boat shed, dragging one off a driveway, or (this will be the last resort, I assure you) the lifeboat station.

Fortunately, England is surrounded by many small, uninhabited islands. The nearest of these to me is Steep Holm - about one mile off the coast of Somerset. I have some small experience of sailing, so reaching Steep Holm should be simple enough; however, there is only one place where it is safe to beach a boat, the rest is rocky and - guess what - steep.

Steep Holm was inhabited (and fortified) a hundred years ago, and it was used as an outpost in WW2, so shelter should still exist on the island. Alternatively, there are a few caves (one of which we'll hide the boat in) or our tent. For cooking, we have the gas stove for about 7 days, and the lighter will make a spark long after its fuel expires - which is probably enough to light some dry stuff whittled with a kitchen knife. Fires should be kept to the seaward side of the island.

There may still be livestock living wild, and it is a protected nature reserve, so there should be plenty of edible fauna. If not, 'gullible' seagulls abound in the area, and due to coexisting with tourists for decades, they should be tame enough to make for easy game. The island is extremely green, so edible plants should be available. I don't know much about plants, so this'll be a case of ‘cook it and see’, but I'm still less likely to die like that than if I try to reach a supermarket. If we can't find a stream, we'll collect rainwater or boil seawater.

Edit: If we happen to find any fishing equipment on our boat hunt or left on the island, the waters around the island do hold various types of fish - I'll probably stick to shore fishing on the seaward side, as using the boat could give us away, particularly in daylight. If not, the rocky coast of the island lends itself to rockpools, so we can go crabbing.

I've thought about further fortification of the island, but I would suggest that it would betray our presence to the zombies, so we're better off just hiding out as long as we can. However, if the zombies do make a foray to the island, we would probably be in a good enough position to defend ourselves using the existing defences. Besides, I'll spend the days sharpening the garden tools.

Edit: I may add some booby-traps to the island: covered pits and so on, but nothing visible. This is not as important as making the island habitable.

Anyway, I hope I've covered everything, and my apologies that my selfish plan does not involve heroically saving the rest of you. Feel free to suggest improvements.

Edit: To find an uninhabited island near you, I suggest Wikipedia or Google Maps - good luck.