Dragonflame was always designed to be the rip-roaring conclusion to what had become - to my genuine surprise - a fantasy trilogy. I wanted exotic landscapes, world-spanning journeys, plenty of heartache and, of course, a great big battle.

But, having shoehorned dragons and charm into the real prehistory of our own world, I felt I couldn't skirt round the thorny question of why there aren't any dragons around today. I realised I had to tackle this one head-on. As a result, Dragonflame contains the biggest clues of all as to the final fate of the dragons and what happened when the charm went away.

While writing Dragonflame, I was also striking a deal with Voyager for a further three fantasy novels. While I wanted to draw a line under the dragon books, I realised there was a way to take Archan's story off in a rather interesting direction. This I did in my next book, Stone & Sky. To create a connection between the two trilogies, I introduced a sub-plot in Dragonflame which transported two of its characters into the strange, vertical world of Amara, otherwise known as Stone.

Dragonflame also contains one of my favourite dragon scenes, in which wingless Wyrm comes face to face with the primitive, cave-dwelling bipeds who will one day supercede dragons as the dominant species on the planet.

• Back to main Dragonflame page