When the impossible becomes possible...

Dragonborn author Struan Murray has answered some of our most pressing questions about his new series and the first thrilling instalment. Settle in and read all about it from the author himself!

Why did you choose to write fantasy novels, what is the lure of this genre for you?

I’ve always loved stories that let you see the world in a new way. Fantasy gives you the chance to imagine what might be hiding just out of sight - behind a tree, beneath the sea, or inside the person sitting next to you on the bus. It’s not about escaping the real world, but about discovering magic within it.

Fantasy can be very freeing to read, and presumably create - you can make your own world - yet I’m sure it carries expectations. How do you manage that whilst maintaining originality?

It’s true, readers expect certain things in fantasy - a sense of wonder, mystery, and usually a few dragons! But I think the trick is to take those familiar ingredients and add your own voice. I try to build my worlds from the ground up, asking: what would this world feel like to live in? What would people eat, wear, fear, love? That helps it feel real and original.

Alex, your heroine, is a dragon. Are dragons a favourite fantasy creature of yours? If so, why?

Yes! Dragons are the best. They’re powerful, mysterious, ancient - and often a little bit terrifying. But they’re also wise, noble, and sometimes deeply misunderstood. I love that they can be both the hero and the monster, sometimes at the same time.

Alex has to attend a training school. Where do your ideas, of the training a dragonborn has to do, come from?

I imagined what it might be like to discover you have powers that scare you - powers you don’t fully understand. I wanted the dragon island of Skralla to feel cozy but frightening and dangerous at the same time, and dragon training is no different - it’s about helping children understand their destructive capabilities, often simply by having battle each other in one-one-one dragon combat. Alex is thrown in to this and expected to keep up with the other dragon children, even as she struggles to tame her own dragon inside her.

When you were writing how did you see Alex? Does it make it easier as a writer to 'see' the characters?

It was important to me that Alex remain on some level the same person, whether she’s in her girl form or her dragon one. I didn’t want it to be a sort of Jekyll & Hyde (or Incredible Hulk) total personality transformation — being a dragon child is about grappling with the big emotions inside of you, and they don’t go away when you change into your massive, monstrous, dragon self. They just get bigger.

Alex is not the only dragon to newly rise, but she is a good one - some of the others less so. Fantasy always seems to come with a dark side. Why do you think this is?

Because light shines brighter when there’s shadow. Goodness, courage, kindness - they matter more when they’re tested. And sometimes, the ‘dark side’ isn’t just about villains - it’s about the hard feelings inside us, like anger, fear, or shame. There are some evil dragons in this story but a lot more who fall somewhere in between — I think that makes a world feel more real — and even Alex has to struggle with her own inner darkness.

Dragonborn is the first title in a new series. Do you ever worry you’ll run out of ideas, or do you have it all planned out in advance?

I have a rough idea of where it’s going but I leave lots of room so I can still be surprised. I like when characters do things I didn’t expect. I doubt I’ll run out of ideas — a secret world of dragons just offers up far too many story opportunities!

How do you keep track of twists and turns whilst maintaining the pace of the story?

With a lot of scribbled notes, frequent diagrams, and occasional panicked walks around the block!

What event, person, or thing encouraged you to think about becoming an author?

When I was seven, I drew and wrote a comic strip called The Great Laugh Comic, to sell to other children in my class for 20 pence a copy. My aim was to raise enough money to buy Pokémon cards, but the children (and parents) enjoyed them so much that I realised I wanted to tell stories forever.

Apart from Dragonborn (of course), do you have a favourite fantasy novel? What is it and what makes it a favourite?

I could never pick a favourite but I’ve always loved The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper. It’s haunting and magical, with ancient myths woven into the real world. The sense of mystery and quiet danger in those pages stuck with me long after I’d finished it.

If you could be a dragon, what would you look like and what would your dragon’s name be?

I’d be a big grumpy dragon who’d sleep on a massive mountain of books, that I would read very occasionally read when not sleeping. I imagine I’d be sort of orange and brown and yellow, like fallen leaves in autumn — my favourite season. And no one would ever learn my name because that would mean waking me up. Which they would regret.

I hope that you are someone who goes looking for hidden worlds within our own. Can you give our readers any clues as to where we should start?

Start with an old bookshop. Or a quiet forest. Or simply a dusty cupboard in your school. Hidden worlds don’t always reveal themselves straight away - but if you look sideways at the world, you might just find the edge of one. Keep looking.

Dragonborn is out now, published by Penguin Random House and available from all good bookshops. Dragonborn 2 is scheduled for May 2026. Watch this space!