9 October 2026

The Tale of the Toadstone

“I am the Toadstone. Come visit the Valley of Stones, meet us … in wild Wiltshire.” So begins a story of a large sarsen stone boulder nestled in a valley of the Marlborough Downs.

The Toadstone tells its tale, starting with its birth and why it stands at the valley edge with a broken leg. Reminiscing, the Toadstone recalls its siblings around the world. It reminds us of ways that people’s lives have criss-crossed with toads and toadstones in the past. In the end, the Toadstone dreams of leaving the valley, and we watch it walk away.

Hand made Tale of the Toad Stone comic set as cards in a box on a blue cloth background

I mentioned the Toadstone to friends when I was starting to learn parts of its story. Information flooded in. The geologists knew about other toadstones. The archaeologists new about toad-toys and toad skeletons at prehistoric sites. The Toadstone family grew.

This was a story worth telling. I drew a 70 panel comic, The Tale of the Toadstone, which you can read online via the link below or the QR code. To help the Toadstone fulfil its

dream and finally leave the valley, each panel is on an individual card and the last cards form a flick book. Flick the cards, and the toadstone walks away. If you are reading the comic online, just scroll down quickly to create the effect.

Founded in place and geography, I went on to make a set of 11 postcards. Each postcard tells part of the story, through both the image and in the message written from someone to a friend, colleague, or family member. Who wouldn’t want to send a postcard of a notable local point of interest?

The long, linear comic lends itself to other media. I built a crankie to tell the tale another way. A crankie is a box containing a strip of paper wound around two vertical axles. The story is illustrated on the paper, and the narrator winds the paper along as the story unfolds in a moving panorama. My crankie was made of a cardboard shoebox, two pieces of dowel, and drawing pins for pivots.

A stack of postcards fanned out on a dark wooden table, with one set on top that has a description of the 11 cards inside the set.

The Tale of the Toadstone is about geology, archaeology, landscape, and mythology. It is made of theories that prospectors and antiquaries posed. It is made of evidence from scientifically-run excavations and petrological analyses. It is made of imagination, both mine and the Toadstone’s. What better way to tell the story than as a comic, a postcard set, or a crankie?

Read The Tale of the Toadstone online: bit.ly/Toadstone