Angela brings her fantasy dragons – and their secret food

What kind of food gives dragons their emerald green flames? And what’s the secret to making a 3D paper dragon in one minute flat?

Children will be able to discover these secrets when local author Angela James visits Marlborough’s White Horse Bookshop on Saturday (11 to 2 pm) to sign and sell her new book Golden Moonbeam.

And if you want an idea of what it’s all about there is a hand-crafted display in the bookshop’s High Street window that came from a project at the Beehive pre-school in Broad Hinton, where Angela lives.

Golden Moonbeam is Angela’s debut book – it is aimed at nine to 12-year-olds — after taking an Open University degree in literature and creative writing, and reveals her passion for turning her childhood dreams about magic, fantasy and adventure into reality.

“My imagination has been the key element for the storyline,” she explains. “But I did want to write about families and brothers and sisters.”

“When I was young, my older brother and I used to share many adventures, such as hiding in a ditch where snakes and frogs might be lurking, just so we could eat forbidden ice-creams.”

Golden Moonbeam is set on the summer solstice, a time of powerful magic when Mailliw (correct) breaks his sister’s mondial. She becomes desperately ill and he has only two weeks in which to find a cure.

“He does, but magic alone is not enough,” explains Angela. “He needs help from friends, dragons and a vampire cat to face a carnivorous swamp, an icy kingdom and to deal with a terrible old hag.”

She believes her vivid imagination for writing fantasy fiction for children stems from being a widely travelled child with experiences of living in Kenya, Singapore and Bahrain.

“Moving around with the Armed Services meant frequently changing schools and having to make new friends, as well as learning from an early age about different cultures,” she says.

“I would play out imaginary games of fairy tales and adventure, stories where magic and mystery were always present.”

Golden Moonbeam, published by Acorn Independent Press, is a £6.99 paperback