When people talk about the history of tobacco control, Norway and Finland are mentioned as the two western countries that pioneered tobacco advertising bans. During the 1980s, these nations' tobacco consumption data was endlessly analysed by other countries striving for a ban. It was also used, selectively of course, by the tobacco industry, desperate to show that the bans had no effect or that somehow they even increased smoking. In fact, another northern European country had got there first: Iceland.

With a population of under a third of a million, it is perhaps unsurprising, if unjust, that less is heard of Iceland than of the countries in other parts of Europe from which it is, geographically at least, relatively remote. In the first half …