Þjóðviljinn 15th August 1969

‘Desmond Bagley writes a book that is set here’.

Four adventure books by British author Desmond Bagley, which have been translated into Icelandic, have gained popularity and the author of the books is now in Iceland trying to find material for his next book.

Desmond Bagley arrived in Iceland on 22nd July and left for Greenland, where he stayed for three days. Since then he has travelled Iceland with his wife and is determined that the plot of his next book, the eighth, will be in this country. At a press conference Bagley spoke about the country, and said that the barren landscape had a stimulating effect on the imagination because it was possible to find all kinds of dangers here, and Bagley was, of course, talking with his protagonists primarilly in mind.

His books that have been published in Icelandic are Gullkjölurinn (The Golden Keel) which was written in Johannesburg and was published here in 1965. His next book Fjallavirkið (High Citadel) was published the following year and in 1967 Fellibylur (Wyatt’s Hurricane) was published. Skriðan (Landslide) is the name of Bagley’s book published by Suðri, like the books for last Christmas. Bagley’s fifth book, Viveróbréfið (The Vivero Letter), is in print here and will be published this autumn. The sixth book, The Spoilers, will be published in English in the near future and the seventh book will take place mostly in Antarctica.

Torfi Ólafsson translated Gullkjölurinn (The Golden Keel) and Fjallavirkið (High Citadel) and Gisli Ólafsson translated Fellibylur (Wyatt’s Hurricane) and Skriðan (Landslide). These books were published here in 2500 copies and Skriðan (Landslide) sold out in a few weeks. Bagley’s books have been translated into 15 languages and he has already sold the rights to film three of his novels.