Gráskeggur means Greybeard.

Quentin Bates dates back to the year of the Cuban missile crisis, grew up in English suburbia and escaped for a few years. The roots in Iceland run very deep and the pull of this volcanic rock remains strong.


Having been a factory hand, netmaker, trawlerman, truck driver, (briefly) a teacher, he found his way into writing via a series of coincidences and has been tapping at a keyboard ever since, including writing a series of crime novels and novellas set in Iceland and translating the work of many Icelandic writers into English.

Quentin Bates is represented by the Peter Buckman at the Ampersand Agency.

Selected Books

Translated Books

Quentin has become increasingly active as a translator, dealing with material ranging from technical and maritime subjects to news articles – and a growing list of crime and nautical fiction.