ontserrat is one island that has never lived in the fast lane, and it has been all the better for it. It was known as "the Emerald Isle," for both its lush hillsides and its Irish heritage, and visitors discovered true peace and quiet here - not the fleeting kind of relaxation promised in glossy travel brochures. The people are wonderful, as we discovered when we stepped off the plane on our first visit. The immigration officer was actually welcoming, telling us to enjoy our stay. So was the Customs man. Yikes, are they tripping or are we? Bracing for the usual cabbie rush as we walked through the doors, we found that even the cabbies were courteous. Incredible. It was then that the calm, which seems to be the raison d'être of this island, began to take hold of us.

Of course, Montserrat then is not Montserrat now. In 1995 a fissure opened in long-dormant English Crater and signaled the start of what would become a multi-year nightmare for this formerly tranquil spot. Although the eruption was taken seriously from the very beginning by scientists from the U.S., England, and elsewhere, it wasn't until 1996 that they recommended that the capital, Plymouth, be evacuated. Many residents resettled to the northern third of the island (which was deemed safe), while thousands more left Montserrat to pursue their lives - temporarily or otherwise - in England or elsewhere in the Caribbean. Inside the crater, a lava dome began to build, eventually growing taller than Chances Peak, Montserrat's highest point. Twenty-three months after the start of the eruption, English Crater began a more volatile phase and scientists urged residents to stay out of the exclusion zone, which included fields of crops on the slopes of the volcano. Then, at midday on June 25, 1997, the dome collapsed and superheated clouds of ash, gas, and rock exploded down the mountain, vaporizing everything in their path (in much the manner that Mount Pelée destroyed St. Pierre on Martinique in 1902). Nineteen people were killed in the space of a few minutes, and eight villages were severely damaged or destroyed. Over the next few months, major eruptions wiped out Plymouth and other villages, and deposited a delta of volcanic debris on the east coast of the island.

After months of violent activity, in early 1998 English Crater entered a period of repose. Whether it would last months, years, or decades, scientist's could not predict, but new lava was no longer being extruded. Presently the volcano continues to steam, and eruptions of ash occur as the unstable lava dome cools, collapses, and settles, rendering the slopes unsafe for some time to come. Approximately 3,000 islanders stayed on Montserrat and are slowly rebuilding the infrastructure in the northern "safe" zone. But under such precarious circumstances, why include Montserrat as an island to visit in the Caribbean? Read the book!