There is no doubt that fictional stories set around actual historical disasters are hugely popular with audiences. When James Cameron made Titanic in 1997, it attracted millions of viewers worldwide, with a final gross of £1 billion. When Gus van Sant (director of Good Will Hunting) made the smaller, independent film Elephant about the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, he won the coveted Palme D'Or award at the 2003 Cannes film festival. This year, the novel Pompeii has taken its writer, Robert Harris, to the top of the bestseller lists once again with his fact-based version of the events leading up to the eruption of Vesuvius.