MIKE Hallowell met his first imaginary friend when he was just a toddler.

Maureen appeared out of the blue as he sat on the kitchen floor in his parents' first-floor flat in Park Road, Hebburn.

"She was small, elfin-faced – almost urchin-like," he recalls.

"Her blonde-cum-chestnut hair was unkempt, and I remember little about her clothes other than that they were plain and unassuming.

"She turned her head on one side and stared at me curiously. Her blue eyes were piercing, inquisitive.

"She said, 'Hello. My name's Maureen, and I want to be your friend'.

"Never for a moment did I question who she was, from whence she came or how she turned up at Park Road in Hebburn.

"Wrapped in a blanket of childhood innocence, I simply accepted that Maureen now lived in our house, and from that day forth, she became a regular companion – my only regular companion, in fact."

The pair would hide in cupboards together, bounce on the sofa and play catch-me-if-you-can.

Mike said: "There was absolute panic one time when Maureen got me to hide in the kitchen cupboard.

"My gran was babysitting at the time, and she thought I had run out of the house.

"There was absolute chaos. The neighbours were out looking for me and everything, and I was hiding in the kitchen with my imaginary friend."

Their fun came to an end when the family moved to Armstrong Terrace in South Shields, although Mike found a new friend waiting for him there.

Elizabeth appeared as he struggled to piece together the fencing for a toy zoo he was playing with in the living room.

"Suddenly, she was sitting opposite and saying, 'Here, I'll show you how to do it'," he said.

"I watched, with not the slightest degree of surprise at her unannounced appearance, as she proceeded to build my zoo for me."

Like Maureen, Elizabeth was ignored by Mike's parents, and he couldn't understand why.

She too disappeared when the family moved house.

Mike said: "Maureen had been mischievous and excitable. She made my heart beat. She was naughty but loveable.

"Elizabeth, on the other hand, was of a different social stratum all together.

"She dressed in expensive silk frocks with large ribbons, and her blonde hair was always perfectly drawn back over her scalp into a vivacious ponytail.

"She was friendly, but cultured like Lewis Carroll's Alice.

"She had the knack of getting her own way, quietly but firmly, and yet without making you feel oppressed. I was in awe of Elizabeth."

Mike never forgot his ethereal friends and neither, it seems, have readers of his Bizarre column in the Gazette.

In 2000, he wrote a column about imaginary friends and was inundated with messages from people who'd had similar experiences.

He received an e-mail from Donna Kent, president of the Cosmic Society of Paranormal Investigation in America, who had read the article online.

She asked him to do an article for their newsletter, and it led to more stories flooding in from America.

Mike, who now lives in West Boldon, said: "Last year, I had enough stories collected from Gazette and Cosmic Connections readers that I thought, 'I could get a book out of this'."

He penned a letter to the Fortean Times, which was published in February last year and generated responses from all over the world.

They came from solicitors, doctors and police officers, and their stories had some strong common denominators.

Mike said: "No matter what culture they come from, their imaginary friends often have a double-barrelled repetitive for a name, like Frab Frab or Mac Mac."

He also received letters from people who had seen the actions of imaginary friends, even if they couldn't see the make-believe pals themselves.

"One person said he was in the back garden and he saw his son throw a ball and say, 'Here, Stephen, catch'," said Mike.

"There was no one there, but the ball stopped in mid-air and came flying back to the kid."

Some research suggests that up to a third of children have imaginary friend experiences.

Mike said: "There is a very wide perception that imaginary friends are created in the minds of lonely children to make up for not having a sibling at home or a lot of friends.

"The truth of the matter is you are more likely to have an imaginary friend if you have a brother or sister at home."

The peak age for imaginary friends seems to be between the ages of three and six, before children go to school and make real friendships.

There are very few reports of imaginary friends in adulthood.

They can be invisible children, animals, household objects that come to life or historical icons, like a Roman soldier, native American or Viking.

Films like Drop Dead Fred, cartoons and books on the theme have brought imaginary friends into the mainstream.

Mike said: "I think, deep down, there is something in the human psyche that tells us whatever this phenomenon is, there is nothing to be concerned about."

* Invizikids by Mike Hallowell, published by Heart of Albion, is out on Wednesday, August 1, priced at £12.99.

* Don't miss Mike's Bizarre column in the Gazette every Thursday, and online here.