Volcanic Activity

Doug Johnstone lets his imagination erupt

- Doug Johnstone

Around 10 years ago, when I was hammering the keys as an arts journalist, I found myself in Iceland to interview crime writer Arnaldur Indridason. I’d visited before, but the otherworldly landscape of the place was assaulting my senses all over again.

With a bit of time before the interview I randomly wandered into the Culture House, the country’s national museum, in downtown Reykjavik. There was an exhibition on Surtsey, the volcanic island formed off the south coast of Iceland during a prolonged eruption in 1963.

I was mesmerised by the dramatic footage of lava explosions, the huge plumes of steam and smoke rising into the sky, the volcanic lightning storms caused by ionisation of the atmosphere. Iceland was otherworldly, but here was a place even more out there – a brand-new piece of land where none had existed before, a place of black sand, sheer cliffs and steaming craters. I had a couple of novels under my belt around then and, like all good writers should, I filed the information away for future use.