Q&A with Anna Claybourne

 

 

 

Anna Claybourne is the author of the new children's picture book The Dragon Atlas. Her many other books include The Mermaid Atlas. She lives in Edinburgh, UK.

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Dragon Atlas?

 

A: Before The Dragon Atlas came The Mermaid Atlas, which I was commissioned to do by Laurence King several years ago. Then we started thinking of ideas for more atlases, so The Fairy Atlas came next, and I was really keen to do one on dragons as I love writing about them. 

 

Q: How did you choose the dragons to include, and do you have any particular favorites among them?

 

A: There are so many dragons in world folklore, you’re spoilt for choice – but for these books, it’s important to include a good selection from different locations around the world, and as much variety as possible, both in the descriptions and stories about them, and in what they look like, so that the pictures look varied and interesting too.

 

So it’s a bit like a jigsaw, or doing a Sudoku, making sure you have a variety from all these different angles. 

 

I have lots of favourites – generally I like the dragons with the most interesting stories or quirky personalities or behaviour.

 

Probably my favourite of all is Alklha, I think because I’m very interested in space, and I love the idea of a space dragon, who can fill the sky with its wings, and swallow the Sun (even if just for a short time).

 

I love the Lambton Worm, as it’s  a story from near where I grew up, and I remember hearing about it as a child.

 

And another favourite is Ihuaivalu, the seven-headed volcano dragon with copper scales, because it’s such a beautiful mental image.

 

Q: How did you research the book, and what did you learn that especially surprised you?

 

A: I have several encyclopedias of folklore and myths and legends at home, as this is one of my favourite subjects, and it’s a good starting place to list all the dragons that seemed interesting.

 

Then I will use the internet for further research. Many dragons are described in ancient myths, legends, and writings, such as Greek, Norse, and Chinese texts, so they’re a great source.

 

You can also find “historical” first-hand accounts of reported dragon sightings, or reports relaying local people’s descriptions and beliefs about them. When dragons are associated with a particular place, like Dragon Valley in Afghanistan, or Poland’s Wawel dragon, there will be lots of retellings of the story associated with tourist information or travel journalism. 

 

However, you do have to be careful, as you’ll also find a lot of websites about video games, fantasy series, and so on that feature dragons, and sometimes they have the same names as dragons from folklore, or are based on them. That means you have to disentangle the folklore information from more recent versions.

 

I was surprised by how similar so many dragons are around the world, even in ancient tales from the time long before people in different parts of the world had made contact with each other.

 

But one explanation for that is that a lot of dragon beliefs and stories could have been inspired by people long ago finding dinosaur and pterosaur fossils, which do occur almost everywhere on Earth.

   

Q: What do you think Pham Quang Phuc’s illustrations add to the book?

 

A: Oh, they’re amazing! I love the way he ties the dragons in with their backgrounds with colour schemes and little decorations, and how all the dragons are so different and have their own personalities in their faces – even in the smaller pictures. He’s the perfect illustrator for this book and has made it really beautiful.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I write a lot of science books, so that’s what I’m mostly doing at the moment, including some funny ones with comic strips. But I do have ideas for more Atlases, which I hope will go ahead.  

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: There are a whole lot more dragons that I didn’t have space for! So if you like dragons, it’s worth looking them up, reading other dragon books, or you might like folklore encyclopaedias such as Giants, Monsters and Dragons by Carol Rose, where you’ll find hundreds of fascinating things.

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb. Here's a previous Q&A with Anna Claybourne.