Halloween costumes have not always been my forte, but I vowed this year not to have a re-run of 2002’s ‘bin bag suit’ or 2006’s ill-advised ‘shadow man’ (head-to-toe black body paint is most assuredly not a good idea). This year I needed professional help.

I decided it was time to visit the much-loved Tam Shepherd’s on Glasgow’s Queen Street. The world of fake plastic horse heads and fart sweets is a confusing one. Thankfully Sarah and Julia, my ever enthusiastic and genial guides, were on hand to lead me through and make recommendations.

‘You’d make a good Indiana Jones!’ they suggest, thrusting a whip and battered fedora into my hands. Tam Shepherd’s houses a bewildering array of wigs from the 50s beehive to the pink go-go dancer. Similarly their masks range from the horrific (the bloody eyed werewolf) to the truly horrific (Rodney from Only Fools and Horses). They also have full costumes for sale, including such classics as the wild gorilla, evil wizard, escaped convict, or the more contemporary, but no less frightening, Harry Potter. While I browsed a budding witch came in looking for help in completing her outfit and was offered a choice of no less than four different types of witch’s hat.

For my own part, I was still wondering whether it would it be a severed leg and fake rotting flesh make-up to perfect my ‘zombie-chic’ or a coconut bra, Hawaiian lei, and copious amounts of leg waxing for my sultry hula dancer? ‘Have you any pantomime horse costumes?’ I enquire. ‘Sadly it’s about the only thing that we don’t stock!’ comes the reply. Despite my girlfriend’s frequently expressed sentiment that I’d make a great horse’s rear-end it looks like it’s not to be this year. Leg waxing it is.

Tam Shepherd’s Trick Shop, 33 Queen Street, Glasgow, 221 2310. www.tamshepherdstrickshop.co.uk