The Tremendous Travels and Intergalactic Misgivings of the Karillapig

By Michelle Graham

Do you ever find yourself looking up at the night sky and asking, ‘who lives on the dark side of the Moon?’

Well, it’s a fair question, is it not? It’s certainly up there with other such burning questions, such as, ‘If you can tune a piano, why can’t you tuna fish?’

The Tremendous Travels and Intergalactic Misgivings of the Karillapig continue on from The Adventures of the Karillapig where we follow our intrepid Moon hero, the Karillapig, who is from the dark side of the Moon, as he embarks on a series of calamitous investigations in an attempt to establish how us earth beings achieved space travel.

Incidentally, in case you were wondering – and I’m sure you were – The dark side of the Moon is inhabited by many different Moon Critters; Moon Critters come in all shapes and sizes and include favourites such as ‘The Hippobuffafrog,’ ‘The Evil Flapperbiller,’ and ‘Moofus McRadling.’ For years now, Moon Critters have puzzled over a burning question: ‘How did Earth beings achieve space travel?’ Hence the Karillapig’s investigations…

The Karillapig isn’t alone. Not at all – you may be surprised to learn that there are at least three Moon Critters currently here on Earth – as may The Bumblebottoms, whose garden (to be more precise, a discarded washing up bowl at the bottom of the Bumblebottoms’ garden) is home to our Moon Critters whilst here on Earth.

One thing is for sure – where the Karillapig is, you will find chaos, havoc, and general tomfoolery…

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Dec 8, 2023
• ISBN: 9781035806232

Michelle Graham

Michelle Graham is the mind behind the Karillapig stories, and she is currently working on the third book in the series with Illustrator Mark Rowe. Over the past few years, Michelle and Mark have created humorous stories, blogs, and articles for popular satire sites, and have taken part in national initiatives to promote creative arts. Home for Michelle is on the Yorkshire/Lancashire border where she lives with her two cats – or as Michelle puts it: “They let me live with them…”, while Mark lives in the Manchester area, but mainly on his allotment where he lovingly tends his giant brassicas!

Book preview

Introduction

Well, hello there to you, and welcome to the tremendous travels and intergalactic misgivings of the Karillapig.

There’s a lot to catch up on since we last saw our intrepid hero in, The Adventures of the Karillapig. Much muchness has been going on with immense mayhem, jaw-dropping jiggery-pokery, catastrophic chaos, unfathomable Moon critter logic and of course, the wisdom of the Arrogant Horse, and all this with a sprinkle of Moon magic.

You may remember, though you’d be forgiven for forgetting that the Karillapig is from the dark side of the Moon and is here on Earth in an attempt to discover how us, Earth beings, achieved space travel.

Fair enough, I hear you say – but there’s more to know…

The Karillapig is distinguishable by his looks. That would normally make him easy to spot if it were not for his ability to be invisible, and we all know the trouble with invisibility is that it can be a nuisance to spot.

The Karillapig is about two feet long and stands about one-foot high. He has a long, horn-like nose, two large eyes, two giant flower antennas on his head and wears round blue glasses.

The Karillapig is covered in long, multi-coloured fur, which goes all the way from his head to the tip of his pointed tail. He has four legs (one in each corner) and wears brown lace-up boots – that is when he is not wearing his favourite slippers or his red wellies.

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*The Karillapig

There’s more to this re-cap in case you’ve slept since we last spoke. The Karillapig is not the only critter from the dark side of the Moon currently investigating our strange Earthly ways in an attempt to discover how we achieved space travel. Not at all – in fact, there are at least two more Moon critters – namely the Hippobuffafrog, and the one and only Moofus McRadling.

To remind you – the Hippobuffafrog is distinguishable by his body, which is a massive blue, pink, and green coloured pom-pom. His tail looks like a candy stick found here on Earth, though there are many differences, for example, the Hippobuffafrog’s tail also doubles up as an umbrella, and when the need arises, a propeller.

The Hippobuffafrog has big, blue, bushy eyebrows, two large eyes and a yellow nose that looks like that of a cow. He has four feet (one in each corner), which are green and webbed like those of a frog. The Hippobuffafrog also has the ability to become invisible, and like the Karillapig, one of his favourite foods is crochet squares.

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*The Hippobuffafrog

Moofus McRadling, you may be interested to re-learn, is an interesting Moon Critter. Interesting because of his unique fashion sense. If you were to look at Moofus-McRadling, all you would see is a mass of bright orange curly hair, an enormous tartan cap, and the wackiest shoes ever. Also, back on the dark side of the Moon, Moofus McRadling is the most top of the top when it comes to being an expert in pancake mix, and also possesses the ability to become invisible when the need arises.

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*Moofus McRadling

So that’s that cleared up!

Since I last updated you, our tremendous trio have been out and about basically creating all manner of chaos and mayhem in the continuing saga that is their Earthy investigations in an attempt to answer the question that has long baffled many a Moon critter – ‘how did Earth beings achieve space travel?’

How Earth beings achieved space travel has indeed been a question that has been asked by many a Moon critter for generations and does in fact feature in the infamous Moon publication, questions we don’t know the answer to, which features page after page of mysteries that keep many Moon critters awake at night. Let’s not underestimate the impact of that statement either – if you recall there are only three days on the Moon – Fidlesdenday, Thwendinsday, and Moronmidday – and they are all at night, so to be kept awake at night on the dark side of the Moon can literally mean no sleep at all.

Other questions in the publication include:

If you are driving down the Moon highway in your red slippers, how many feathers would fit in a balloon?

If the colour orange were in fact yellow, would anybody named Simon really care?

If you can tune a piano, why can’t you tuna fish? And…

Is there more to life then cheese and onion pie?

The Moon critters from the darker side of the Moon are particularly fascinated by the fact that Earth beings have visited their home, though none of them were about at the time, hence the ongoing provocative question. With extra special inside knowledge, there very well could be a good reason for this, which goes something like this:

Apparently, Moon critters regularly forget to put the lights on. It is likely this is the reason said Moon critters haven’t noticed our visits. Add to that the fact that our Earth Rocketeers have never been informed of the rules regarding visibility on the Moon for visitors from other planets, as is clearly stated in the great Moon publication, Rules regarding visibility on the Moon for visitors from other planets, which states:

‘In order to be visible to the locals, intergalactic ID must be carried. Such Intergalactic ID consists of jam sandwiches and fake cats’ ears fixed securely on special sparkly headbands’ any deviation from this rule could result in severe punishment, such as wedgies, time on the naughty step, and in the most severe cases, a serious talking too! – you have been warned.’

Scary stuff indeed. Now I’m no expert in space travel, but I think it would be fair to assume that our astronauts are not aware of this rule.

So anyway, where was I? Oh, that’s right, we were re-capping. A lot has been going on both on Earth and on the Moon as our tremendous trio has been continuing with Earthly investigations plus finding time to pop back to the Moon now and then. John Revolting the Moon oracle is still beaming regular updates from the Moon to Earth via the flower antennas on the Karillapig’s