Reporting Live from Bradford Dragon Hunt!

Today I'm trying something new - a live blog!  I'm in City Park, Bradford on Positive Bradford Day, manning a stall with my husband for something we call Bradford Dragon Hunt.


This actually started with my Bradford: City of Fantasy short story reading at Ilkley Literature Festival, in which I read stories inspired by aspects of Bradford, accompanied by a slide show of fantastical architecture in Bradford.  As a booming city in the Industrial Age, Bradford contains loads of Victorian gothic, which is full of stone dragons and other mythological creatures.  As a result, my husband became really interested in stone dragons in the city centre and started photographing them.  Today's stall encourages people to take part in a dragon hunt around the city, counting the dragons in three "hot spots" to receive a certificate.  We're hoping it will encourage people to look at Bradford in a new way.

As a little extra, I've also added a "find the hidden dragon" contest.  If people can locate a copy of Silver Hands in Handmade in Bradford and tell me the title of chapter 20, they win a prize!

If you're in Bradford, come down and see us.  We're here until 6pm.  If you're elsewhere in the world, what fantastical things do you notice in your home town or village?  Does it inspire you?



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