In 2009, the year after the banking
crash in Iceland, and the rest of the known universe, I decided the time was
finally ripe for me to visit the unique North Atlantic hideaway and tick
another country of my to-do list. It was back then a somewhat mysterious little
island hidden away near the top of the world that I knew remarkably little
about and yet I was very aware of its fearsome reputation for being cool as
hell. A reputation that is, I can now categorically confirm, well deserved. Seven
years later and here I am reflecting on exactly how that trip changed my life.
I was so taken with the tiny nation of just over 300,000 people that I returned
the next year and over and over again until I had somehow made six visits in
the space of five years and finally decided that I was going to leave the UK behind
and have a crack at making Iceland my home. I moved to Reykjavík from Belfast
eighteen months ago and not only have I made the place my home but I would now
seriously struggle to imagine myself leaving it. I read somewhere once that
home is not where you come from but where you no longer want to run away from.
Well, that’s what I’ve found.
Since my first visit here I have
published two books ‘On A Small Island’ and ‘The Mistake’ which are both set in
and around Reykjavík and now have a third and a fourth book on the way. I have
been embraced by the close knit crime writing community here and am on the
organising committee for the 2016 Iceland Noir crime writing festival which
will be held at Nordic house in Reykjavík this November. Two years ago I
attended the festival as a fan and this year I’ll be moderating the closing
panel. That’s how quickly the weather can change around here. In the years
between my first visit and my actual move here I spent a lot of time reading
any translated crime fiction I could get my hands on from Iceland and got to
know the work of authors such as Viktor Arnar Ingólfsson, Árni Þórarinsson,
Arnaldur Indriðason and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir. Since arriving here I have
discovered that in addition to them there are many other local crime writers as
well whose works are only now being translated into English or will be soon.
The crime writing scene here is
much bigger than I could have ever imagined and everybody is very supportive of
each other in a way you might not experience in larger countries. I can now
count Sólveig Pálsdóttir, Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Jónína Leósdóttir, Yrsa
Sigurðardóttir and Ragnar Jónasson among my friends here as well as British
author Quentin Bates who spent ten years here before moving back to the UK and
whose books are all set in Iceland. All of these lovely people will be
appearing in one shape or another at Iceland Noir this year.
The idea for Iceland Noir was
dreamt up in 2013 by Ragnar Jónasson, Quentin Bates and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir and
to their immense credit the initial one-day festival went ahead after only six
months of preparation. In 2014 Reykjavík
was the host city again before the festival moved to the Shetland
Islands in 2015. It is now back in Iceland again for 2016 before it takes to
the road once more and heads to Hull in England next year. It is one of the
smaller crime writing festivals around but that is definitely part of its
charm. Its size makes it very easy to mingle with writers and other fans,
something that is not always easy at some of the larger festivals. When you couple
its intimate size and its lovely local authors with the picturesque setting of
Europe’s most northerly capital it really is a combination not to be missed. Just
in case you need some more convincing to head up this way here is the website
for the coolest crime-writing festival in Europe: http://iceland-noir-iocy.squarespace.com/
As well as the local writers we
also have a superb selection of visiting authors from all over the world
including Val McDermid and Craig Robertson from Scotland, Viveca Sten from
Sweden, Sara Blædel from Denmark, Leena Lehtolainen and Kati Hiekkapelto from
Finland as well as Alexandra Sokoloff and Jeffrey Siger from the US. There will
also be one and two-day guided tours following the festival with local crime
writers showing off some of their favourite destinations around the country and
settings from their books including a tour to Siglufjörður with Ragnar Jónasson
to see the locations from his Dark Iceland series.
There is a gala dinner with the
authors at a luxurious inner city hotel on the Saturday night and a city crime
walk with readings from a few handpicked local authors including myself on the
first night of the festival. So it is definitely one to keep in the back of
your mind if you’ve ever entertained any thoughts of visiting Iceland. 2016
might just be the year to do it. It really is a wonderful place and very easy
to get to from the UK, mainland Europe and the US. In November the weather will
be chilly and the days short but that will only add to the feeling that you are
tucked away safe and sound at the top of the world with a bunch of
crime-writing lunatics.
The festival coincides with the
advent of the ‘Noir in the North’ conference at Háskóli Íslands (the University
of Iceland) and one of our participating authors Val McDermid will be appearing
at both events. The star of Icelandic crime fiction is very much on the rise at
the moment with the huge success of Ófærð (Trapped) by RVK studios here in
Reykjavík. In Norway the show drew 500,000 viewers per episode which is 10% of
the Norwegian population and in the UK it pulled 1.2 million viewers per
episode on BBC4. Ragnar Jónasson’s Dark Iceland series has been optioned for
television, Lilja Sigurðardóttir
has sold the film rights to her book ‘The Trap’ and Yrsa Sigurðardóttir’s book
‘I Remember You’ has already been shot here in Iceland and will be in cinemas
this Christmas. Iceland is quickly becoming a hot seat of Nordic crime fiction action
after many years of being in the shadow of Sweden and Denmark with their shows
such as The Killing, Wallander, The Bridge and those movies about the girl with
the dragon tattoo. I can quite easily see this year’s Iceland Noir being the
best yet and needless to say I’m really looking forward to it. In the next
month I will be publishing my third book ‘A Place To Bury Strangers’ through
Fahrenheit Press who will also be republishing my first book ‘On A Small
Island’ while I finish work on book number four so it’s shaping up as a pretty
busy year for us all and that’s just the way we like it here in Iceland. And
now I’m off to the shops to get some more coffee.
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