Safe Return Doubtful

published in 2011 – a collection of journals

William Morris (1834 – 1896) was an English textile designer, poet, artist, socialist activist, and, of course, writer.

He was greatly influenced in his love for Iceland by his University languages tutor Eiríkur Magnússon, who became a close friend. He is recognised as one of the most significant cultural figures of Victorian Britain.

Leaving his wife Jane and his children at his manor house in July 1871 Morris left for Iceland with Charles Faulkner, W. H. Evans, and Eiríkur. Sailing from the Scottish port of Granton aboard a Danish mail boat, they proceeded to the island via Tórshavn in the Faroe Islands before arriving at Reykjavík, where they disembarked. From there, they proceeded by Icelandic horse along the south coast to Bergþórshvoll, Þórsmörk, Geysir, Þingvellir, and then back to Reykjavík, where they departed back to Britain in September.

These were the days of great explorers, and Morris’s exploits may have into insignificance if it had not been for his journals, and his ability to write. He was not a very fit guy, nor had he very much expertise on travelling in the wilderness, and that comes over really well in his diaries.
Iceland is not an easy country to travel in these days. I’m currently on my third ‘expedition’ there now, and even in a campervan it is strewn with hazards; long distances between habitations, and the October weather – and this in the 2020s..

In his journals he manages to get over the trepidation of stepping into the unknown, from his preparation, to stepping on the boat in rough seas in Scotland, to journeying by horse in the most challenging weather in Iceland itself. He tells also of the landscape in vivid prose, and of the hospitality of local people who often took him into their houses on wild nights in the middle of nowhere.

This is some of the greatest travel writing. Its often difficult to describe to someone why one might undertake such a journey, and I have rarely read an explanation like this. I share some of Morris’s character in that respect.

Lavinia Greenlaw follows in his footsteps, and interposes his prose with her own ‘questions of travel.’ It gives his journals some order, and fills gaps where necessary, but it is Morris’s words that explore our conflicted reasons for not staying at home.

My GoodReads score 4 / 5