Tell us your stories of imaginary friends to win bag of goodies courtesy of Macmillan Children's publishers

[EmilyMumsnet]

Imaginary friends...have you ever had one? Have your children or grandchildren? Macmillan Children's Books are celebrating today's paperback publication of Moone Boy: The Blunder Years by Chris O'Dowd and Nick Vincent Murphy and would love to hear your stories.

Based on the hit TV show on Sky One, Moone Boy: The Blunder Years shares this hilarious story of imaginary friendship with younger readers. Perfect for boys and girls aged 9+, the book follows Martin Moone on his quest for a decent wingman to help him navigate his idiotic life. When his best mate Padraic suggests Martin should get an imaginary friend (or IF) he decides to give it a go.

Macmillan's favourite tale will win the poster an exclusive Moone Boy goodie bag including:

A signed hardback copy of Moone Boy: The Blunder Years
A paperback copy of Moone Boy: The Blunder Years
A Moone Boy bobble hat
Moone Boy swag - a poster, bunting, bookmark and post-it notes

This competition is now closed

And the winner is...
Mummymoanasaurus, for the delightful image of the herd of elephants crowding in for tea.

Thank you for all your wonderful stories - special mention to SevenEleven and Princess Keith, and RhinosAreFatUnicorns with Bob the tapdancing spider - and long may your imaginary friends live!

My DD's imaginary friend is called Peeva and lives in China. Her age changes daily. Sometimes she is in her 80s.

I was very lucky to have the Sound of Music children as my imaginary friends. My garden was on a hill so "we" had a great time running down it singing Do Re Mi! I worked out how to play cricket and rounders bouncing the ball round walls - i was very imaginative. Happy times in my perfect large singing family!!!

We have Rebecca.
Rebecca is very interesting, depending on 3yr old dd she's sometimes 3 too, sometimes 4, sometimes 16 or 17, sometimes a mummy with her own baby girl, sometimes she's dead (but she always comes back). We get intricate details about Rebecca's deaths (shot in her stomach by a soldier, died in a rolling car after it had crashed - the detail surprises me as I'm always careful over what she watches on tv when it is on).

I had an imaginary friend from the age of 3+. Her name was Torcake. She lived in the flannel and had a father called Cub, a mother called Addy and a little brother called Jont.

She was a small, Borrower sized girl, with blonde hair and a yellow sun dress. She was invisible. She was exceptionally good at gymnastics. She could jump off the sideboard from the hinges on the doors, and somersault from the dining room table onto the floor, even though she was no bigger than my hand. I was her trainer and was able to help her up onto the table so she could jump from it. She could also swim very well and would practise diving from the taps and the plug holder in the bath. At night she went to school under the duvet in my bed. She was best at spelling and reading.

The family would go on holiday to the little door in the back of the police station sign in the High Road. They liked playing with the light on the front of the building and would make sure it was lit.

I am the eldest of two. I have a younger brother whom is 4 years younger. I played a lot with boys growing up, so I think I wanted a girl to play with. I think fondly of her - she's still very much part of my childhood memories.

My imaginary friend arrived when my best friend (my big brother) started primary school, even though I had two younger sisters.

His name was David, said in an Essex accent even though were from and lived in Scotland.

I used to make my mum put him out cereal in the morning. She told me he didn't like milk. In truth we couldn't afford to waste food so she'd pour the cereal back in the box after I'd leave the table. :)

My imaginary friend was called Mr Dorsey, apparently. I used to tell my parents, " Don't sit there - Mr Dorsey's sitting there !"

For about 5 years my DD had an imaginary friend called Albie. Oh, how I miss him. Albie had always already done the things that we were doing. he was insufferable in a way. He was always doing bigger and better things than us. Oh but it sweet the way DD spoke so earnestly about him.

I used to have an imaginary pet dog called Towser from the old tv cartoon.
Apparently I used to shriek at people not to sit on a certain space on the sofa because Towser was sitting there. I'm very normal now. :)

Mine was called Jeremy Biscuit. He wasn't with me all the time, he lived somewhere else and I would have imaginary conversations with him on the telephone.

Dd1 used to have a friend called steamy Lee
Apparently she met him on a bus.
She talked about him for ages and then stopped because he was dead.
She was 3.6 at the time.
Weird child!

DD2's was fuzzy and blue, and lived in the hedge outside the sitting room window; his name was Harry, which inevitably evolved into Bad Harry. Bad Harry was responsible for the regular blocking of loos with shells, whole loo rolls, socks, building blocks; basically anything Bad Harry could fit down the loo. He also managed to prise the child proof lids off the paint pots, and redecorate the dining room in our rented-between-moves house in the time it took me to nip into the kitchen to see if dinner was ready.

Bad Harry disappeared shortly after DD2 started school, much to my joy, and the relief of everyone on our drainage system.

dd had imaginary friends called Poggy and Aggy. They were aliens and one of them had more than two eyes. They lived in a boat under the bridge not far from our house.
They weren't fast walkers, we had to wait for them to catch up often. One day they just disappeared, never heard from them again.

Both by DCs have lots of imaginary friends. My DS currently has Skinny the micro pig. He has very distinct tastes and generally can be found getting up to mischief around the house. My DD has Skinny's mum who is generally telling Skinny to tidy up and get ready! I do love that they have such great imaginations but it is tiring for me to have to remember all the likes, dislikes, hobbies, and allergies etc of 10+ characters.

DS has one that we have all adopted. He's like a family IF! He comes everywhere win us! It must be genetic, I had one when I was small, along with an imaginary cat.

My son had an imaginary friend called Big Plughole. He used to sleep in what is now my daughter's bedroom -- and even after she was born, my husband and I used to refer to the room as Big Plughole's room.

My son used to be very part time at nursery, and we would often miss out on information such as when Show and Tell was, which upset him a little as he was dying to do Show and Tell. One afternoon, when I went to collect him, I was pulled aside by a member of staff who 'just had to tell me about the adorable time they'd had that afternoon'. She said that they had had Show and Tell, and my son had volunteered to talk about Big Plughole. So he talked about his friend in great detail, and all the other children were amazed and delighted, and even seemed to see him for themselves. Big Plughole was handed around, and all the children got a chance to hold him.

Big Plughole faded out of our lives some years ago. I wonder where he is now.

DS2 has a "ghosty" - developed from the "ghost" opponents that you get on Mario Kart. Ghosty is not quite as good as DS2 at doing all kinds of things - not that DS2 is a competitive little brother or anything!

I had an imaginary friend called Lisa-Lucy. Anything I saw that I liked I said was Lisa-Lucy's, so she had several beautiful houses and was always having ice cream. Apparently she dressed up as a scarecrow once and flew far away, but came back when it was bedtime. On another occasion she had a "roof dog" (a dog that lives on the roof, as the name suggests) living on her roof. Lucky, lucky girl she was.

My dd (now 11). Had several imaginary friends when she was younger. They were the most bizarre of creatures. First there was Abbo, then we introduced to Abbo's mum Tessy the Ton and finally Abbo's friend Cauliflower. They would come most days and we would have to set places for them at the dinner table. Dd was always talking and playing with them. Sometimes they were a little bit naughty but when I told dd they wouldn't be allowed to come around anymore if they couldnt behave they suddenly stopped being blamed for all the naughty things. She loved her imaginary friends and they had lots of sleepovers where I would have to pray for them as I did her each night.
Who knows where the strange names came from- makes me chuckle even now.

Oh I have just realised I forgot another friend of Abbo's- Gilly.

My two year old DS had an imaginary friend called Heefy-beefy. When we asked him why he said matter of factly "he is beef".

My oldest daughter had one called Yole usually it was just chatter and sometimes laughing at Yole as she was "funny" . One dark stormy night, yes really, my husband was away and my daughter needed the bathroom , we had just moved house and the downstairs loo was decorated in dark colours so as she sat there she started to smile and said mummy Yole is over in the corner she's pointing and smiling at you Before she knew it I whisked her out of there into the bright living room I got a really creepy feeling from Yole .

She also had Cilla and Artie from the singing kettle but it was mainly Artie she talked to! she has grown up to be very clever with lots of friends incase anyone wondered !

My imaginary friend was called Googy. He was a young boy, with chubby cheeks, dimples, a floppy fringe and huge smile.

30 years later, I had my first son. As he grew into a toddler, he became the spitting image of Googy!

We have Petal.
Petal is DDs (6) imaginary mummy. She is a domestic goddess, who bakes cakes, sweeps the floor and is generally a complete nightmare paragon of virtue. For a while she went everywhere with us, often cadging an extra biscuit (I've noticed imaginary friends never need extra veg though?)
Apparently she's in Spain at the moment - learning Spanish
I have a great photo of DS2 (8) patiently sitting grounded on a see-saw, with Petal apparently on the other side, because Petal really really wanted a go and secretly he'll do anything for his sister
Sometimes she has a son called Humphrey, he seems amiable enough and is mainly used to torment and annoy DS 1 & 2.

Ds1 had an imaginary friend for ages, called arnold. He was great adhd I loved him. After about a year when ds was maybe 4, we didn't hear much about Hi anymore. I asked ds1 what happened to him and he said he moved to America and then died. So that was that for poor Arnold (we don't know anyone who had moved to America, possibly the death was that my grandmother died around the same period).