Let's welcome my guest, Fiona Valpy
My guest today is Fiona Valpy, acclaimed bestselling author of eleven novels. Her books have been translated into more than thirty languages and have held the number 1 position on the Amazon Kindle charts in the USA, UK and Australia, as well as being Washington Post and Wall Street Journal bestsellers. Her twelfth novel is Sisters of the Midnight Sun due to be released on 24 September 2026.
Fiona spent seven years living in France, before returning to live in Scotland. Her love for both countries, their people and their histories, has found its way into the books she’s written. She draws inspiration from the stories of strong women, especially during the years of the Second World War, and her meticulous historical research enriches her writing with an evocative sense of time and place.
You can connect with Fiona Valpy via her website, Facebook and Instagram
You can pre-order Sisters of the Midnight Sun in digital, paperback and audio editions on Amazon.
What is the inspiration for Sisters of the Midnight Sun? Is there a particular theme you wished to explore?
Initially, I set out to write a book about the Shetland Bus, the incredible story of the little fishing boats that crossed the North Sea from Norway to Shetland, evacuating refugees from Nazi-occupied Norway and ferrying agents and commandos back to support the Resistance who were fighting an underground war to get their country back. But as I began to research ideas further, I realised the book I’d thought I was going to write was transforming itself into something else. Norway’s occupation and the resistance of the Norwegian people became more and more compelling – especially some of the roles played by women, which still go largely unrecognised even today. And so the book I wanted to write turned into a book I needed to write.
The book is set in two time periods as a braided narrative? Why did you choose this structure?
I use the dual-timeline structure in many of my novels as I find interweaving a more contemporary strand can greatly enhance the historical timeline and help bring it to life. Of course, writing in a dual timelines can be a challenge too, but then so are many of the most rewarding things in life. The two strands, contemporary and historical, provide rich opportunities for exploring contrasts, as well as for making connections and finding parallels between past and present. I call this the ‘three Cs’ – contrast, connection, congruence.
Publishers are less inclined to publish WWII novels at the moment. Why did you think it important to set part of your novel in this time period?
I draw so much inspiration from the stories of resistance and hope – many of them still untold – from World War II. It’s vital, too, that we don’t forget the lessons from that period of history. International tensions, a global economic crisis, the rise of extreme political ideologies and nationalism, and unchecked territorial aggression by certain powers created a ‘perfect storm’ that led to the Second World War breaking out. All of these factors remain worryingly familiar to us today, when war poses such a threat in some regions and the ramifications continue to destabilise economies the whole world over.
My books deal with much wider topics than simply the war, though. While they’re set against the backdrop of the era, they are more about universal human themes of love and loss, trauma and compassion, and grief and hope.
What resources did you use to research your book?
I managed to find some really fascinating first-hand accounts written by Norwegians about their experiences during the war years, particularly The Mountains Wait by Theodor Broch who was Mayor of Narvik at the time of the battle, and Forgive – but do not Forget, a book by Sylvia Salvesen, who was sent to Ravensbrück concentration camp. Kirsten Brunvoll – who appears as a character in the book – was a Nacht und Nebel prisoner, one of three Norwegian women taken from Grini to Ravensbrück and then transported from there to the death camp at Auschwitz-Birkenau. She survived to give evidence at the Warsaw trial of camp commandant Rudolf Höss, helping to open the eyes of the world to the truth of what had gone on in the death camps, and wrote of her experiences in her book Veien til Auschwitz (The Road to Auschwitz).
I am extremely grateful, too, to my Norwegian translator Sidsel Andersen for sharing with me her father Johannes Hanssen’s personal account of his arrest in Norway for his involvement in producing an undercover newspaper, the terrible treatment he endured at the hands of the State Police, and his subsequent deportation to concentration camps in mainland Europe, including Sachsenhausen, Dachau and Natzweiler.
Closer to home in Scotland, I also spent a day with Bill Strachan, (aka GM3ZRT), the father of a friend of mine, who taught me about short-wave radio transmissions and the technicalities of clandestine wireless operations.
Did you travel to Shetland and Norway to research the book? What struck you there?
I made several trips to both. They are fascinating places to visit – wild, bleak, beautiful and fiercely proud of their own unique identities. I went at different times of the year, experiencing many aspects of each: the winter darkness north of the Arctic Circle in Norway in December storms; the Storm Petrels that nest in the iron age broch (tower) on the island of Mousa in the simmer dim (Shetland’s white nights of midsummer); summer on a Shetland croft; Up Helly Aa – the world’s biggest Viking Fire Festival held on Shetland in deepest January; the arrival of a liberty convoy in the harbour at Lerwick to commemorate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, which included some of the original small fishing boats that were part of the Shetland Bus.
I think the thing that struck me most about both places, though, is how closely they remain interlinked. There is still a very strong sense of connection between them, born from their long-interwoven histories, and in some ways Shetland seems more Norwegian than Scottish.
Was there a particular aspect of the history of the war in Norway which surprised you?
There were many subtle methods the Norwegians employed to remain united and take a stand against the German occupiers. For example, people would wear a simple paperclip on their lapel to signify togetherness against the enemy, and women knitted designs into pairs of gloves bearing the intertwined characters H7, representing their King, the exiled Haakon VII, who continued to direct resistance operations from London throughout the war. But I think, too, the hardships endured by Norwegians under the occupation aren’t as well-known as they should be. Few people realise there were concentration camps on Norwegian soil, nor that Norwegians were also sent to the camps in Germany and Poland.
Is there a photo or piece of art that strikes a chord with you in relation to World War II? Why?
I’ve pored over many, many photos in the course of my research, some of which are shockingly harrowing in their inhumanity.
It’s hard to single out just one, but for Sisters of the Midnight Sun I think it would have to be this photo of the town of Narvik in the aftermath of the battle there, (which became a key event in the book). When the harbour was attacked as part of the wider invasion of Norway, the town was transformed from a peaceful, thriving port to a devastated shell overnight. The sense of shock and loss the people of Narvik must have felt is evident in this photograph of Norwegian ships lying destroyed in the harbour.
Tell us about your next book.
The novel I’m working on next is set in Italy, specifically in Naples and nearby Ravello on the Amalfi Coast. I’ve been enjoying some warmer travels in the name of research after my trips to Shetland and Norway! It’s another dual-timeline WW2 novel, although this one has the added ingredients of the local mafia and a very active volcano, which only serve to up the stakes for my characters and heighten the jeopardy.
Shetland, 2001: Ruby Reid is running from a decision she doesn’t want to make. Finding herself on a remote croft caring for a mysterious elderly woman she discovers that Hanna has her own reasons for hiding from the world. And slowly, she reveals her story to Ruby…
Norway, 1940: Hanna Kristiansen’s world is overturned when Norway falls into the hands of Germany. She’s determined to keep her twin sister, Liv, safe but as Hanna fights for her country, she must make unthinkable personal sacrifices. The war may take everything from her, but ensuring the freedom of her people demands it.
Decades later, Hanna is still haunted by the scars of war that mark her arm. The numbers that will forever signify where one life ended and another began. But as the two women bond through their shared loss, they learn to find strength in fragility and discover a new hope in the most unlikely of places.
You can pre-order Sisters of the Midnight Sun in digital, paperback and audio editions on Amazon.
Thanks so much for generously sharing the background to your wonderful book. I never knew the close connection between Shetland and Norway.
I thought I’d also share your prior interview with me about The Storyteller of Casablanca. You always find such hidden gems of history!
