Dragons of Wayward Crescent

There are many different kinds of dragon and there are myths and stories about them dating back many thousands of years. But some of the best new stories are by Chris D'Lacey. He writes about a family of dragons who live in Wayward Crescent.

They have all been made from special clay by a lady called Liz and, for the right people, they are clearly alive. When the wrong people are around they behave just like ornaments.

A young man called David moves into the house as a lodger and Liz gives him his own dragon called Gadzooks. He soon realises that Gadzooks is more than a ceramic figure. Gadzooks helps David to realise his dream of being an author and together they have lots of adventures.

Start with The Fire Within and enjoy some great Dragon stories.

C is for Claws

How many claws should a dragon have? Well it depends on where it comes from. In China there were traditionally two kinds of dragon - the three clawed and the five clawed. Only Imperial dragons had five claws and any commoner who was found in possession of a five-clawed dragon would have his head chopped off with great ceremony.

Another Chinese legend tells that all dragons begin with five claws but, as they get further from China, they lose their toes. Consequently Korean dragons have four claws and Japanese only three.

English dragons have completely different feet from Oriental dragons. They are more like cats' feet. Most of Eldritch's plush friends have just three claws. And Eldritch doesn't have any at all! He's too gentle for anything so cruel.

B is for Basilisk

A belated entry to ABC Wednesday: a weekly challenge to create a blog entry based on the next letter of the alphabet. It's hosted by Mrs Nesbitt. Eldritch told me to join in.

For a very long time dragons have had a bad press, in spite of the fact that they are actually quite harmless beasts. Eldritch is one of the kindest, sweetest plushies that you could ever want to meet. He is good to his brother Bamburgh and looks after his young bovine cousins. You can find out more about them on Eldritch's own blog here.

Dragons have a lot of relatives. One of them is the Australian bunyip but a better-known one is the basilisk. Basilisks are fearsome creatures with bodies like snakes. But they hold their top halves off the ground as they slither along. All parts of the basilisk are toxic, but the worst is its breath which can wither trees and poison streams and rivers.

Even harsher, though, is the basilisk's stare. That can kill an animal with one glance. Only three things can withstand it: the weasel is immune to all forms of basilisk poison;a crowing cockerel will drive a basilisk away; and the plant rue, which the weasel uses to heal itself if it is hurt in a basilisk battle.

The photo isn't a basilisk of course. Otherwise we'd all be dead! It's a Naga serpent goddess on a Nepalese temple lamp used in Hindu ceremonies. It's in the museum at Kedleston Hall in Derbyshire.

The Flight of Dragons

This is a wonderful book full of loads of dragon tales. It's a natural history that explains lots about how dragons work and how many of the myths and legends that surround them have come about.

It's by Peter Dickinson and in it he details the chemistry and physics of dragon flight. With the aid of a "flying brick" he explains that dragons cannot use normal flight systems because of their size. The maths is a bit complicated, but basically if you double the size of a dragon you have to quadruple the size of its wings in order to gain lift. If you take that to its logical conclusion the wings become impossibly large.

So he concludes that historical dragons (Eldritch is a modern dragon, of course, and doesn't follow these rules) must have been almost weightless and gained lift by producing hydrogen inside their bodies. He gives the complex chemistry involved in the interaction between bones and digestive juices that could make that happen. This also explains the firey breath thing because they need to burn off excess gas in order to land.

The book gave rise to a wonderful film by the same name (loosely based on it to say the least) that featured the magnificent voice of James Earl Jones as the baddie.

I've just found out that second-hand, paperback copies of this book are changing hands for £75 each. I wouldn't part with my hardback copy for the world!

My secret love

To be honest it isn't that much of a secret. Anyone who's been to my house knows it. Anyone who has seen me at the gym knows it. And anyone who really knows me has met my own personal example.

I'm a dragon lover.

I have pictures and models and an animatronic and jewellery and, most importantly, a small, red, plush one. He's called Eldritch. Some people call him my alter-ego but he really is a separate character all on his own. He has his own blog as well as lots of followers on Twitter. He's smart and funny and gets away with things that I would never dream of saying or doing.



This will be a proper blog eventally. Please bear with us while it's developed. Play with Harry. He'll enjoy that.