Bagpipes, Beasties and Bogles

There is something of the traditional ‘pourquoi’ tale feel to this unlikely yarn from Scotland. Long ago in the dark, dingy times, lived sweeper Charlie McCandlewick but he was not your ordinary kind of chimney sweeper, Charlie was a sweeper of bogles. Charlie had the knowledge and the kit to deal with the likes of those Nippers and Nabbers, Fanckles and Grunnochs and other house-inhabiting creatures of the night. Most important among the items in his kit were the thistle cloth bags into which he put the bogles. But what to do with all those bags of bogles? Well, that’s another story – of how the bagpipes came to be invented in fact.

With a field guide to the creatures that go bump in the night, annotated drawings of the bogle sweeper’s attire and equipment and an instruction manual and explanation of how bagpipes are made and operated, Tim Archbold gives us plenty to pore over and chuckle at in his droll, comic book and somewhat Quentin Blake style illustrations.