Dragon Breeds of the Bayembe Region by Isabella Camherst and Tom Wilker

Thanks to Conde Nast Traveller

Title: Dragon Breeds of the Bayembe Region

Author: Isabella Camherst and Tom Wilker

Publisher: Not known 

Source book: The Tropic of Serpents: A Memoir by Lady Trent (The Memoirs of Lady Trent #2) by Marie Brennan 

Following their travels to Eriga, Isabella Camherst and her associate Tom Wilker planned a book about the dragons of the region. But they collect so much material that they publish not only Dragon Breeds of the Bayembe Region, but also Dragon Breeds of Mouleen. Despite looking so close on a map, the two districts have very different climates (hot and arid or very wet and humid) and thus very different wildlife. There is also mention of Draconic Taxonomy Reconsidered: this may be another book by the same authors, or it could be the subtitle of Dragon Breeds of the Bayembe Region. It’s hard to tell from the text.

One can only suppose that there must be an enthusiastic market for books about dragons in Scirland.

Scattered throughout The Tropic of Serpents are references to Yves de Maucheret’s (sadly for our purposes, untitled) book about Mouleen and the Moulish people. Apparently he leaves out a lot of important details and not all that he put to paper turns out to be true. And, he was writing two hundred years ago.

I have read IRL reviews of Isabella’s memoirs complaining bitterly that dragons don’t feature enough. But that ignores the broad range of her interests. She’s interested in birds; then dragons of course, so she’s a naturalist; she travels to foreign countries hardly visited by her countrymen; she discovers archaeological remains; she learns languages and becomes an anthropologist; she invents the hang glider. I think that’s pretty good for a woman in the days when almost all her activities were considered scandalous. Oh, and she writes books too of course. Some people are never satisfied.

To read more about the Ikwunde War in which Isabella finds herself accidentally embroiled, read Achabe n Kegweyu Gbori’s exhaustive ten-volume work Expansion and Retreat of the Ikwunde translated by Ezekiel Grant.

There is also reference to the Book of Schisms; in which Chaltaph refuses the gifts of Raganit. It’s not clear whether the Book of Schisms is part of a whole, like the Book of Job in the Bible, or a stand-alone book of the Scirling religion.

Thanks to PeakVisor