'A time of dragons' might conjure the image of a fantastical medieval world, with knights dark and light, clever sorcerers and witches, doomed kings and charmed innocents. Love might seem to be very much a part of such a world, where passions rage and honour fires the blood. But the truth is that dragons come in many guises, even into modern times. As does love.

Love and the dragon go hand in hand: the hot fiery breath of desire and the madness that takes possession of the senses; the dragon sleeps within but may be awakened. Sometimes the beast is subtle, sometimes fearsomely overt in its endeavours to control the human heart, to intimidate, to conquer. Love itself can be a dragon.

Even in Tanith Lee's most fantastical fairy tale worlds and medieval fantasies, the beating heart within her stories reveal aspects of the human condition - its weaknesses and strengths, its passions, its yearning. In this volume of tales, most of which have not been collected before, the author takes up her sword to face the dragons - not to slay them, but to see their stories reflected in the blade. For be sure they each have one to tell...

With an introduction by Craig Laurence Gidney