The Lights that Dance in the Night by Yuval Zommer

The Northern Lights have been frequent visitors, especially recently, to my former home of Lossiemouth on the southern side of the Moray Firth. More dramatically, I have seen them dance above the Arctic Ocean with the only other light coming from the ship on which I was sailing. The first time I saw them thus in Norwegian waters I immediately understood the fascination they have exerted down through history.

In The Lights that Dance in the Night, Yuval Zommer attempts to capture their beauty, joy and wonder and pin them down on paper. And he does that amazingly well given that his illustrations are, of necessity, static. Such is his ability, though, that they seem to have movement across the pages of the book.

The Lights are very much the star of the show but beneath them Yuval Zommer shows people and animals on land and sea reacting to their presence. And we see them swirling and changing from page to page.

Blues, greens and purples are shot through with occasional golden streams illuminating the sky and reflecting off sea and snow.

The Lights that Dance in the Night is a glorious book for any time but it is absolutely perfect for a northern winter.