Community / Author and ‘Up Helly Aa baby’ excited to return to Shetland after 40-year wait

Ryan Nicolson

20 January 2026 15:01

Content warning: This story contains details of suicide and domestic abuse. If you have been affected by these issues, help is available.

AN ‘UP Helly Aa baby’ is returning to the isles for the first time in over 40 years – just in time for the 2026 festival.

Sarah Harper is also set to give a talk about her debut novel, Ella’s Ghost, at Shetland Library on Saturday afternoon.

It marks the first time that Harper – who has born in the Gilbert Bain Hospital on 23 January 1981 – will be back in Shetland since she and her family moved away.

She is making the “trip of a lifetime” some 700 miles north from Berkshire to Lerwick this week, taking her mother back to Shetland too.

Sarah Harper with mother Susan in 1981.

And the pair are excited about soaking up the Up Helly Aa atmosphere next Tuesday, even snapping up hall tickets to keep the party going long into the night.

Harper had hoped to come back to Shetland for her 40th birthday in January 2021, but the trip was cancelled due to Covid.

She said she had considered coming for her 50th, but thought “why wait?”

“I’ve wanted to come back for a very long time,” she told Shetland News.

“Obviously we’re really looking forward to Up Helly Aa. I’m really excited about being a part of that and getting to experience it.

“Our AirBNB host has got us some tickets for the halls, and they were telling us we help out in the kitchen and things like that. It sounds like such a fantastic community event. I can’t wait.”

Harper was born at the Lerwick hospital just days before Harry Jamieson led his jarl squad through the town’s street in 1981.

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Her dad, Alan, was based in the isles in air traffic control at the time, and Alan and Susan moved away with their young daughter a few years later.

In the intervening years, Harper has self-published her first novel – Ella’s Ghost – which she is bringing to the Shetland Library for a talk on Saturday.

The author is the first to admit that it is “not a cosy read”, focusing on domestic abuse and themes of gaslighting, identity and survival.

The story follows Ella, who feels that the only way she can escape a very tough home situation is to take her own life.

It was partly inspired by a friend of Harper’s, who also died of suicide because of an ex-boyfriend.

“The intent is to get this message across and having that kind of personal connection makes it more poignant,” Harper said.

“It is quite serious and intense, but part of it is a message about hope and overcoming these situations.”

Harper said that she had always been creative, and had been involved in music and art circles before falling out of creativity for several years.

But one morning she woke up and found that the “right side of my brain was screaming at me to do something creative”.

“I started writing these and ideas and scenes that I had in my head,” she said.

“I’ve had this idea for a long, long time, so I thought if there was anything I should connect with it was going to be Ella’s Ghost.

“What it’s given me is a focus, because I’ve found a subject I felt very passionate about.”

Sarah Harper with copies of her book Ella’s Ghost.

The author estimated that there were about 10 years between her first putting some words and it being published, with four years in between where she did not write anything.

“Hopefully my next novel won’t take as long,” she laughed.

Harper said she was “really looking forward” to having an audience at Shetland Library on Saturday, and she thanked them for hosting her.

During a previous talk, she said she asked the audience to raise a hand if they or someone they knew had been affected by domestic abuse.

“Everyone raised their hands,” she said. “It just shows the impact domestic abuse has.”

The author hopes her talk on Saturday will similarly shed a light on the serious issue, and signpost support for those affected.

Looking back to her trip to Shetland, Harper admitted she was “not looking forward to the weather”.

“I wanted to go on the boat just for the experience, but we’re flying up,” she said.

“We’re hoping to go to the brewery and the whisky distillery, and just to see as much of the scenery and beauty as we can.”

If you have been affected by crime, help is available. Whether you are victim, a witness, or the accused, you can find independent, impartial, and confidential support in Shetland.