David Pyle's Reading List

"William Hamilton arrived in Naples in November 1764 as Britain’s envoy to the Spanish Court at Naples, and soon became besotted with Vesuvius. He climbed it regularly, often escorting visitors, and kept notes of the changes he observed. After a dramatic eruption in late 1765, Hamilton wrote the first of several letters to the Royal Society documenting ‘the many extraordinary appearances’ he had witnessed. Vesuvius continued to wax and wane, and Hamilton engaged a painter, Pietro Fabris, to accompany him and sketch the volcano and its activity. In 1776, Hamilton published ‘Campi Phlegraei’, named after the nearby volcanic field. This sumptuous book includes Hamilton’s letters on Vesuvius, and more than fifty vibrantly hand painted illustrations, derived from Pietro Fabris’s sketches. After another dramatic eruption in August 1779, Hamilton commissioned more pictures, which he published as a supplement. This monumental work was one of the first devoted to the detailed study of a volcano and its ongoing activity, and for this reason Hamilton is regarded as the first volcanologist of the modern era (Pliny, to whom he liked to compare himself, being the very first!). Thanks to Hamilton’s writings, we have a very detailed picture of the behaviour of Vesuvius from the mid-eighteenth Century, and of some significant eruptions whose deposits have now largely been buried or lost."

"One of the pleasures of researching my book on volcanoes was to discover new stories and writers. Constance Gordon Cumming was a writer and painter, who travelled independently across vast reaches of the Pacific Ocean in the 1870s. After visiting Fiji, New Zealand, Tonga and Tahiti, she eventually landed on Hawaii in October 1879. Fire Fountains is her account of her stay on the island, mostly in the form of letters home to her sister. For me, the highlights of the book are her accounts of the long hike up Kilauea volcano to see the fire fountains and lava lake in the summit crater. On her first ascent, her thirty-mile hike through forest and across a frozen ‘billowy ocean of lava waves’ was rewarded with a sight as gloomy as the view from a Scottish mountainside in fog. The lava had gone, and there was no fire to be seen. Undaunted, she returned a few weeks later, and was rewarded with glorious views of cascades of molten lava. Records of fleeting glimpses of activity at remote volcanoes, such as those by Cumming, are important elements when trying to piece together the past histories of volcanoes. Although volcanologists are naturally drawn to work on erupting volcanoes, most volcanoes spend most of their time not erupting. Of the 850 volcanoes that have had a confirmed eruption in the past 10,000 years, and are expected to erupt again, the majority have been quiet for at least 100 years. Many of the most well known eruptions of the past 30 years happened at volcanoes that had not erupted for centuries, including Pinatubo (Philippines, 1991), and the Icelandic eruption of 2010 (Eyjafjalljökull). Before the next eruption happens at a long-dormant volcano, we’d like to know two things: what is the geological evidence for what happened during past eruptions? And are there any accounts of past activity? Since the physical deposits of small eruptions may be hard to find or, more likely, lost through erosion and weathering, any accounts of how a volcano behaved in the past are of interest – since they may give us clues as to what to expect in the future."

"This edition of Volcanoes was published as a ‘pocket’-sized Penguin book, and I have fond memories of reading it as a volcano-obsessed teenager. Peter wrote this as a book to be read, rather than as a textbook, and it retains a delightful and timeless quality. I remember being drawn to his descriptions of the magical volcanoes of the high Andes; indeed, so much so that I nearly went to study for a PhD with Peter Francis some years later. His accounts of the three ‘classic’ eruptions — of Vesuvius in AD 79, Krakatoa in 1883, and Mont Pelee in 1902 — are as good as you will find anywhere, with an enthralling mix of eyewitness accounts and volcanological insight. In volcanology, there is much to be learnt from comparing the eruption ‘of the day’ to case studies from the past, and for this reason Volcanoes is certainly a book to be re-read and enjoyed today."

"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."

"Volcano Verses is a moving and evocative collection of poems that document the trials and tribulations of the ‘infernal volcano’ from 1995-2001. At the time the eruption started, Howard Fergus had been speaker of the Legislative Council for twenty years, and was an historian, poet and lecturer. His poems cross many of the same themes explored by Yvonne Weekes — the waiting, the uncertainty and the inadequacy of the official response to the slow drowning of the land ‘with fiery avalanches, rocks and coffee mud.’ Howard’s perspective ranges from that of pastor to historian; putting the ‘puffs and blows’ of the Soufrière into the context of the island’s colonial past, and religious and cultural present. One fascinating aspect of this collection is the way that the technical language of volcanologists, broadcast daily in radio bulletins, seeps into the fabric of the poems. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Montserrat has a special significance for me, as it does for many British volcanologists of my generation. In 1998, I spent six weeks on the island on a rotation as staff scientist at the Volcano Observatory. The volcano had just moved into a quiet phase, and the main sign of its existence – behind the cloud cover – was from the occasional dusting of powdery ash that fell to the ground. Fifteen years later, I joined a workshop on Montserrat taking a look back at the eruption and its consequences. It began with an emotional day of stories from those who had lived through the eruption, which made me realise that the narrative of an eruption is not just a timeline of physical events, but the intersection between the live volcano and the people living upon it."