You know he'll take you down with him

Last night I spent considerably more time on the M4 than intended. When I made it back to West London, the streets were full of tiny witches, miniature ghosts, small Frankensteins, and so on. All clutching bags or boxes of sweets, and being shepherded around by parents. More alarmingly, the otherwise nice pub was also jammed to the gunwhales with little devils, diddy skeletons, and a whole bunch of children who were clearly dressed up but not of any known supernatural genre. Then a zombie schoolgirl brought me a pint.

I'm pretty sure that Hallowe'en didn't used to be such big news. My cub pack always had a Hallowe'en party, and dressing up usually involved being either a sheet-ghost or a binbag-witch. I certainly don't remember the bought costumes that most of last night's micro-horrors were sporting. And we had to make our lanterns out of turnips which - if you've never done it - is bloody hard work. Also, get up several hours before we went to bed, etc. Does anyone bob for apples these days? Or is it all about the trick-or-treating? Round Hallowe'en we used to get people (either in costume, or with lanterns) calling at the door asking for "a penny for Hallowe'en". There was no option of a trick.

( Nosferatu @ St Barnabas' Church, Pitshanger Lane )