It would appear the world is coming to an end. There is a major earthquake every other day now and Europe is covered by what remains of Iceland. Faster than a speeding cloud of volcanic ash, The Guardian has a quiz on volcanoes in literature. I got three out of 10 but I really don’t read many books about volcanoes (with the recent exception of Krakatoa by Simon Winchester which I found hugely disappointing).

In the meantime, I’m sitting here in the sunny Pacific Northwest wondering whether Mount St Helens is still active and whether the fault line below our island can stand the strain.