Volcano: A Memoir

"While there have been many books written about volcanoes as objects of study, as agents of doom, or places of wonder, there are very few that record the first-hand experiences of living with an erupting volcano in your backyard. Yvonne Weekes’s memoir captures the raw dislocation of life on the Caribbean island of Montserrat in the weeks and months after the Soufrière Hills volcano awoke. “Montserrat has a special significance for me, as it does for many British volcanologists of my generation. ” When the eruption began, Yvonne was Director of Culture on Montserrat, and a teacher, writer and actor. The energy of the book, which is written in the present tense, carries the reader on an intimate journey through the chaos and uncertainty of the first few years of the eruption. Prior to 1995, Montserrat had not erupted in recorded history. So even though the mountain of Chances Peak had always loomed over the capital Plymouth, it was as if time and the volcano only began on that fateful day in July 1995. More than twenty years later, the volcano is still restless, Plymouth is buried under ash, and the consequences of the eruption are still unfolding for those who lived through it."