More magical than the most stunning sunset; harder to catch sight of than a rainbow – the Northern Lights, or aurora borealis, paint the night sky in the northern polar region in swathes of green, purple, pink and red – but their unpredictability make them even more enchanting. Described by scientists as “a big sneeze by the sun’, the lights are caused by charged solar particles hitting gasses in the Earth’s magnetic field creating a curtain of colour which changes depending on the altitude at which you view them.
In Scandinavian folklore, the lights are said to be the reflection of the Valkyries’ armour as the warrior women rode across the sky. The Sámi people of north Norway, Finland and Sweden believe the lights to be spirits dancing in heaven. Indigenous people of North America believe the lights are the spirits of ancestors keeping watch over family. All interpretations are poetic: perhaps due to the ethereal beauty of the lights, but perhaps also because so many stars have to align for us to see them: geothermal activity, location, and the clarity of the night sky.
I thought it would be romantic to surprise my husband with a trip in search of the lights. The town of Tromsø was so picturesque, we spent 48 wonderful hours enjoying coffee and cake by day and chasing the lights at night. The first night was cloudy, and we were disappointed to only be able to see inky sky through a sliver in the clouds. On the second night we had booked a tour across snowy isolated terrain to the border with Finland. By then, I knew it didn’t really matter whether we saw the lights or not – I was so taken by Tromsø: the stark blue and white hues of the town and Mount Storsteinen overlooking it. The modern architecture of Tromso library and its parabolic roof. Pretty clapboard houses in reds, blues and yellows, topped with snow and trimmed with white lattice edges. The Arctic cloudberry cake served in cafes. I already knew that library, that cake, those houses, were going into a future book.
Under One Sky is a story about Cecilie, an introverted dreamer who works in that library, and a coffee shop in Tromsø, and what happens when she falls in love with a man she might never meet because he lives half a world away in Mexico. It’s the most beautiful book I’ve written.
The aurora did come out that second night: a majestic curtain of green undulating in the starry night. And again on the plane home, we saw a red stripe hugging the top of the world. And as I looked in awe, Cecilie was already forming in my mind.
The good news is, you don’t have to travel to the Arctic to see them. We’re in the peak of the 11-year cycle when the number of coronal mass ejections (those sun sneezes) is at its highest – many of us in the UK were lucky to see them in May and October 2024, and again last month. So keep your eyes peeled!
And if you want to feel the romance of them, Under One Sky is out now!