Iceland Noir

I used to have very conservative tastes in reading.

The list of the books that I read last year shows that I have dipped my toe into more genres, especially of the dark and twisted type. Sometime in 2016 I discovered Nordic Noir and, having some Scandinavian genes on my mother's side of the family, and being a huge fan of Finland, I was hooked.    

And then I discovered a new, small publisher who was producing books from Icelandic authors and once I started to read them one thing led to another and before you could say Eyjafjallajökull  I was halfway up an Icelandic volcano on a horse.

Books have that effect on me.


So, last Wednesday I went to London to the launch of a book by the Icelandic author Ragnar Jonasson. And being a little shy I could not pluck up the courage to speak to him so my son took this photo of the author and me.


That was ok, I was happy to be there and quite chuffed to see Ragnar in the flesh and to meet Karen Sullivan of Orenda Books and a few other people that I know only in the virtual world of Twitter and Facebook.




And although I used to hate having my photo taken, since the cancer diagnosis, well, my priorities have changed and now I don't mind so much.

I'm just happy to still be alive and to have hair again...

And it was lovely to catch up with my son and to have dinner together after the book launch. We should do it more. we agreed, especially if I get another late-night tour of his favourite spots in Soho.

So here's to Ragnar and his latest novel, Rupture.

From the shy little old lady with a special affection for it