"When I was a child, out fishing in Scotland, we caught giant dinosaur prawns in our tangle nets, and none of the adults could identify what these extraordinary creatures were. This made a deep impression on me. If there were things living at the bottom of the ocean and not even the adults knew what they were – why not dragons?
For me, the appeal of mythical creatures is that tantalising idea that they might exist, that perhaps we do not know everything about this weird and wonderful world of ours. So my favourite mythical creatures are those that the author has brought to life in such a vivid manner that you really believe they might be true. Here are my top ten mythical creatures in children's books."
Cressida Cowell is the author of the How to Train Your Dragon series and the Emily Brown stories. Find out more Cressida here: http://www.cressidacowell.co.uk
1. Dragons: Kalessin, from the Earthsea series by Ursula le Guin
Dragons, of course, are my favourite. So many people across the world, and over the centuries have believed in dragons, who is to say that their belief is not correct? Riding on a dragon's back would be the closest thing to having wings yourself.
The dragons in the Earthsea series are ancient and mysterious forces of nature. I love their ambivalence – are they good or are they bad? These are mythical creatures on a grand and terrible scale, and they talk, as such ancient and impressive creatures ought to talk, in riddles.
More dragons, some awesome and some sweet: Smaug from The Hobbit, Katla, from The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren (read it and weep), Hagrid's pet baby dragon, Norbert, from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling.
2. Dwarves and Hobbits: Gollum from the Hobbit
I love neat little Bilbo Baggins, the unlikely Burglar, but Gollum is my favourite dwarf/hobbit character. There is a pathetic melancholy to slippery Gollum – he was once a hobbit himself, but now he has descended into being this creature of darkness, a pale spider, guarding his "preciousssss" all alone, eaten up by his desire for the ring.
I think it's the way that Gollum talks that makes him feel so real: "Thief! Thief! Baggins! We hates it, we hates it forever!" Sinister and piteous all at the same time, malicious and yet eager to please, Gollum feels hauntingly alive.
Other fine dwarves: Doli from the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, the evil dwarf inside the pumpkin from Knock Three Times by Marion St John Webb (truly petrifying, for something written in 1917, I have to warn you) the Gnome King from Ozma of Oz by Frank Baum.
3. Abominable Snowmen: Ambrose the wall-eyed yeti from The Abominables by Eva Ibbotsen
Ambrose is so small and funny-looking he might as well be a squashed glove or a tea-cosy. He is part of a family of yetis that have ear-lids to stop them getting earache in the Himalayan winds, and they have feet on back to front which is why people find them so hard to track in the snow.
Yetis are huge, and kind and gentle, and I want one.
Other Yetis: That very sweet one who saves the life of Chang in Tintin in Tibet by Herge.
4. Fairies: The Psammead in Five Children and It by E Nesbit
E Nesbit was wonderful at creating creatures of such vivid character and naturalistic speech that it feels like they are sitting right in front of you. Her Psammead the sand-fairy is not your conventional sprite. It has "eyes on long horns like a snail's eyes, and it could move them in and out like telescopes". It has ears like a bat. It is grumpy, hypochondriac, and it prefers its own company, but a bit like Mary Poppins, it is susceptible to flattery. Oh, and it also grants wishes.
Other great fairies – Tinkerbell from Peter Pan is your more traditional type of fairy, but she is saved from being saccharine by her spiky vanity and jealousy. Holly Short, from the Artemis Fowl books by Eoin Colfer, is a fairy with attitude.
5. Phoenixes: The Phoenix in the Phoenix and the Carpet, also by E Nesbit
Another wonderfully believable character, created by E Nesbit, the Phoenix is conceited, but good natured, and delightfully vain and silly. He can't understand why everyone isn't worshipping his wondrousness, and keeps calling himself modest things like "my golden presence".
Other great Phoenixes: Fawkes from Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling.
6. Man/Animal fusions: Mr Tumnus from The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
Mr Tumnus is a polite well-read little faun, who carries an umbrella, and has books on his bookshelf called things like Is Man a Myth? I fell in love with this character when he burst into tears and confessed that he was about to betray Lucy to the White Witch. His open admission of his own cowardice, and then his bravery when he overcomes this, makes him very appealing.
Other Man/Animal fusions: the Minotaur, from the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, Foaly, a centaur from Eoin Colfer's Artemis Fowl series, Grover Underwood, a satyr, from the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
7. Witches: Mrs Whatsit, Mrs Who and Mrs Which from A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline l'Engle
Mrs Whatsit looks like a tramp, was once a star, and can transform herself into a centaur, among other things, so she is no ordinary witch. She is exactly 2,379,152,497 years old, and along with her friends Mrs Who and Mrs Which they are fighting the power of "the Black Thing". She has a fine way with words: "Wild nights are my glory," Mrs Whatsit said. "I just got caught in a down draft and blown off course." "Life is like a sonnet", Mrs Whatsit said. "You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself."
Other great witches: The Grand High Witch from The Witches by Roald Dahl (this bald horror will scare your socks off), The White Witch from the Narnia stories, by CS Lewis, (I'd like to see her in a fight with the Grand High Witch – I'm not sure who'd win) Madam Mim from 'The Sword in the Stone' by TH White.
8. Giants and Ogres: The BFG from Roald Dahl's BFG
Imagine how exciting it would be to be lifted up in the hands of giants, travel in their pockets, live like a little mouse in their giant world. The BFG's linguistic inventiveness makes him sweetly unique. He is so kind that he won't eat "human beans" and exists entirely on "snozzcumbers", even though they are disgusting. He can also give you sweet dreams, and take away your nightmares,
Other Giants and Ogres: the Ogre from The Ogre Downstairs by Diana Wynne Jones (he's not actually an Ogre but I put him in because it's such a great book and you really ought to read it), Hagrid from the 'Harry Potter' series, by JK Rowling, Fezzik from The Princess Bride by William Goldman.
9. Really Scary Baddy Mythical Creatures: Dementors from the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling
Little details about the Dementors make them feel petrifyingly real – the way they feed on positive emotions, their blindness, their delightful habit of forcing people to re-live their worst memories…and don't even get me started on the Dementor's Kiss, that sucks out a person's soul...
The ultimate baddies, Dementors make Orcs look like ickle pretty pussy-cats.
Other Really Scary Baddy Mythical Creatures: The Cauldron-Born from
The Book of Three by Lloyd Alexander.
10. Creatures-of-Indeterminate-Species: The Lorax from the Lorax by Dr Seuss
The Lorax is a tree-spirit brilliantly portrayed as rather irritating and bossy, as well as a magnificent orator: "I am the Lorax, I speak for the trees, the Truffula trees that swayed in the breeze…" His beloved Truffula Trees are cut down by a blue-armed capitalist called the Onceler, and when the Lorax disappears leaving a small pile of rocks with the one word "Unless", it still makes me cry. "Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot,/Nothing is going to get better, it's not."
Other Interesting Creatures-of-Indeterminate-Species: Gurgi from The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, is a weird monkey-like creature, very appealing. The Neverwasanoceros from Penguin Small, by Mick Inkpen
