Extract 1
This was a place of half-light, already ancient in the time of Arthur, silent, secretive, peopled by saints and ghosts of saints, hermits, holy men.  She felt their spirits pressing round as the mare picked her way through the bracken and wooded hills.  On the lower slopes they could move quickly but the pace slowed as the ground rose steeply where the treeline ended, giving way to bare hillside.

She came to a small circle of stunted trees near the stone cross, below which lay Issui’s well.  Here Meghan dismounted.  She heard the soft gurgling of a stream running down the hillside to a small hollow where the silver waters filled a basin carved from stone, before running over the lip to join the other places of the earth.  In this place, legend had it the sainted hermit had once dwelled and nearby been murdered.

Extract 2
When he surfaced from the Tube, he realised with a jolt of panic that no-one had given him directions to the museum entrance.  Or he’d forgotten to print out the email.  Find phone, he thought grappling for his mobile in his rucksack.  Find email. The arrangement was for two interviews, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, plus he was to be wheeled out for some guest appearances among the exhibits.  The traffic as ever was dense and impatient.  How could anyone think straight in all this noise and busy-ness?  Already he felt a headache coming on.

He stood with a crowd of people waiting to cross at the lights.  Curious stares surrounded him as they always did.  Yeah I’m a dragon. There’s still some left. So get over it.

Exhibition Road.  The right place at least.  A queue already? That was gratifying. A young child with a pink parasol and gum boots patterned with yellow ducks stared at him, apparently unpeturbed by the sight of a live dragon wandering down Exhibition Road.  The child called out ‘Hey Dinosaur. Are you lost?’

Kind of.

‘Ssshhh! Gracie’ the young woman with the child looked embarrassed. ‘Sorry… so sorry…’

‘Not at all.  It’s a common confusion.’

‘About being lost. Or about being a dinosaur?’

‘Both.’