The Galoshans Play

It's officially October - which means it's exactly the right time to start rehearsing your Galoshans Play. Guising, trick or treating, down our way in Inverclyde, it’s “Going Galoshans”.

In the nineteenth century, The Galoshans Book was a chapbook printing of a short play based loosely on the legend of Saint George and the Dragon, more traditionally performed by mummers. Children would dress up and travel from house to house performing their interpretation of this play, it is from this that we derive the term “going galoshans”.

In recent years, the tradition of referring to Halloween as "Galoshans" has been revived in Inverclyde, with local school Aileymill Primary taking the lead. It has also been the inspiration for an arts festival. You can read more about the history of the tradition on the Tales of the Oak blog.

In 2016, Magic Torch received funding from Heritage Lottery Fund Scotland to help revive the tradition of performing the Galoshans Play. I wrote a new version of the play which includes characters for the myths and legends of Inverclyde as the main characters, including Auld Dunrod, Granny Kempock and Captain Kidd.

Over 6000 free copies of the play were distributed to local primary schools last year, but if you didn't get one, fear not - you can still download it for free. 

And of course Halloween is the ideal time to enjoy some of my spookier stories on the blog, or purchase some of Magic Torch's award winning spooky books and comics featuring scary stories from Inverclyde and beyond...

I've a few new seasonal stories to share with you later in the month, including a spooky story based on the Galoshans play itself.

Merry Galoshans.

Captain Kidd meets Doctor Who

It being May, I generally like to celebrate the life and legends of legendary pirate Captain William Kidd - but to be honest, it's hard to top the actual discovery of Kidd's real life treasure in Madagascar.

Here instead, are a few test pages created by artist Mhairi Robertson, for a wee comic I wrote just for fun with Kidd's Oak Island treasure being the site of an adventure for time travelling hero The Doctor...in both his First and Tenth incarnations. Seemed like that fitted better over on this blog with the other fan fiction, rather than on the respectable folklore based website that is Tales of the Oak.

Before anyone gets too hung up on the historical accuracy of Captain Kidd meeting Doctor Who, let me remind everyone about the time pop culture pirate Kidd also met Batman...

We never quite got around to finishing it...but who knows...maybe next year. Right now, Mhairi and I are working on a new comic project, Rowan Tree Legion, which we totally are going to finish.

Kidd appears frequently in things I write, from being one of the hosts of the vintage horror comic Tales of the Oak to popping up in the childrens book Wee Nasties.

In May 2017, Magic Torch will be publishing I Thought I Was Undone...a full length Captain Kidd graphic novel, exploring the truth and the legend of the unfortunate Scottish pirate...