Although Prestin and the Booger Oath is a funny, mischievous and deliberately gross children’s adventure, the story behind the book means a great deal to me.
My children Conor, Darragh and Carla died on 24 January 2020. Conor was nine, Darragh was seven and Carla was three.
Among the precious things they left behind was a homemade comic created by Conor and Darragh, and influenced by Carla. Its central character was a boy called Prestin, and even then their story contained the wonderfully childish humour that would eventually inspire Prestin and the Booger Oath.
Over the past number of months, I have taken the character they created and built a much larger adventure around him. In the new story, Prestin and his best friend Dara discover an extraordinary civilisation living inside the human nose, the Snotiverse, complete with boogers, snot armies, the Majestic Mucus and an impending battle between the Snotiverse and the Humanverse.
It is unapologetically silly and imaginative. Most importantly, it is intended to make children laugh.
Writing Prestin and the Booger Oath
Writing the book has also done something I did not anticipate. Spending so much time immersed in the imagination and humour that inspired the original Prestin has been enormously positive for me personally. So much surrounding Conor, Darragh and Carla is understandably associated with how I lost them. Prestin has given me something quite different. An opportunity to immerse myself in something they created while they were alive and to celebrate their humour, personalities and wonderful imaginations.
When children pick up Prestin and the Booger Oath, they will not need to know the story behind its journey. They will simply meet Prestin, laugh at the hilarious things he and Dara get up to, discover the Snotiverse and become completely absorbed in the adventure. But for me, every child who laughs at Prestin will also be enjoying something that began with Conor, Darragh and Carla.
Perhaps the most encouraging part has been discovering that children genuinely enjoy what they started. We’ve shared the story with test audiences and the response has been hugely positive. Children connect immediately with Prestin, the humour and the ridiculous world of the Snotiverse, while parents have responded warmly to the friendship, imagination and heart underneath all the silliness.
Making Children Laugh!
Therefore Prestin and the Booger Oath isn’t a book about tragedy. It is about bringing something my children created to life and allowing their imagination to make other children laugh.
My ambition is quite simple. It’s for children who never knew Conor, Darragh and Carla to discover Prestin and become completely absorbed in the world they helped inspire.
Prestin has helped me to cope with their loss, the unexpected power of humour and storytelling, and what can happen when something precious from children’s imaginations is given the opportunity to grow.
More Prestin Books on the Way
Since the summer of 2025, I have completed two further Prestin books, alongside another book based on one of the kids’ creations. I have found that I can happily immerse myself in Prestin’s world of adventures, and it has become a very welcome distraction from the more complicated side of my life, where the Coroner process is still to be completed, nearly seven years after their deaths.
I have also experienced considerable frustration while campaigning for changes in mental health care. Those responsible for delivering change simply do not move at the pace I believe is necessary if we are serious about preventing further deaths.
Writing has helped to temper that frustration. It allows me to remove myself, for a while at least, from a world that sometimes seems afraid to take responsibility for fear of accountability, and disappear into one where almost anything can happen.
In doing so, I have followed a path well trodden by many writers before me, famously including J.K. Rowling, and established my own little writing sanctuary in a local café.
People Watching
It turns out that people-watching is a wonderful contributor to the imagination.
I remember sitting there one day when the man at the table beside me was on the phone to his office about a client’s order that hadn’t arrived. He was completely stressed and telling the person at the other end that the client was going to “go mad”.
At the table on the other side of me, two women were deep in conversation about a domestic issue involving one of their sons. One of them was at her wits’ end.
And there I was, sitting between them… writing about the Snotiverse and escaped farts.
So writing allows me to step away from the more complicated aspects of my life and enter an imaginary world filled with fun, silliness and complete ridiculousness. It is a release that I desperately need, one that has been enormously positive for my own wellbeing and, perhaps most importantly, gives my sense of humour somewhere to go.
There is a huge excitement in publishing my first book, but there is a debilitating nervousness about it too. I much prefer the excitement, although, if I’m being truthful, the nervousness is winning at the moment.
But underneath both of those feelings is something else. A real sense of contentment that I have been able to bring Prestin to life for Conor, Darragh and Carla. I would love to call that feeling happiness, but I still can’t quite bring myself to use that word.
I hope I will someday.
A Real Book
For now, Prestin and the Booger Oath is a book. A real book. Something that existed in my head, inspired by something that first existed in the imaginations of Conor, Darragh and Carla, is now printed on actual pages for other children to read.
I had doubts. Lots of them. I constantly questioned whether I had the ability or capability to do it.
But it’s here and I’ve done it.
And I have a newfound respect for every person who has ever sat down and put pen to paper… or tapped continuously on a keyboard while wondering whether any of it was actually any good.
Prestin and the Booger Oath is available now from Prestin and the Booger Oath | Buythebook.ie and will be available on Amazon.
Pick this book, not your nose!
(c) Andrew Mc
About Prestin and the Booger Oath:
Prestin is a curious kid with a terrible secret . . . he picked his nose. It was only once, and it was for research! He swears! It was for Snotology!
But when Prestin and his best friend, Dara, accidentally discover the Snotiverse – the secret world in charge of all human noses – everything changes.
Boogers are disappearing. The Majestic Mucus is furious. And she’s planning revenge on the entire human race. Her plan?
Running Noses Day!
Every nose in the world will run at exactly the same time, unleashing the greatest, grossest disaster in history:
THE GREAT SNOTSPLOSION!
Now Prestin and Dara must venture deep into the Snotiverse and stop the Majestic Mucus before it’s too late.
Order your copy online here.
