A single thread by Tracy Chevalier
HarperCollins, 2019. ISBN: 9780008153823.
(Age: Senior secondary - Adult) Highly recommended. It is 1932 and
Violet Speedwell, whose fiance and brother were killed in the Great
War, has become a 'surplus woman', doomed to be a spinster because
of the demise of a generation of young men. In an effort to become
independent she leaves her family home and goes to Winchester where
she joins a society of broderers who are embroidering kneelers and
cushions for Winchester Cathedral. It is here that she makes friends
and begins to make a new life.
I am a great fan of Tracy Chevalier's stories and her wonderful
ability to describe the lives of women, while giving a snapshot of
the history of the time. In A single thread, Chevalier
weaves the story of how the fictional Violet becomes independent,
twining it with the real life of Louisa Pesel, who was asked to
design the cushions and runners that can still be seen in the
Cathedral today. The group of broderers becomes Violet's mainstay,
fending off loneliness with the friendship of Gilda and Dorothy and
the calm helpfulness of Louisa Pesel.
I loved the descriptions of the embroidery and was fascinated to
learn of the fylfots that were a border on the vestments of the
effigy of 14th century Bishop Wodeloke, and how the Nazis took the
fylfot symbol as their own swastika. Chevalier writes about Louisa
Pesel and embroidery on the author's
website.
The details of the art of bell ringing were so graphic that a reader
could almost hear the bells pealing. And it was the understated way
that Chevalier describes how women were treated in the 1930's that
is most poignant and memorable, as she tells of the struggle
of Violet to find love and make a family of her own and of Gilda and
Dorothy's love for each other. Family life and the loss of a child
and the devastation it leaves behind are also described in a very
moving way.
A quote from Geraldine Brooks on the back cover sums it up:
'Chevalier is a master at foregrounding the small, dramatic stories
of overlooked people from the past.' An interview with Chevalier is
available on the NPR
website.
This is a gentle and engrossing novel that nevertheless touches on
complex themes, that of women's sexuality, the plight of the
unmarried mother and the importance and difficulties of family life.
It is one too that celebrates the beauty of Winchester Cathedral's
embroidered cushions and runners and the talent of the women artists
who designed and made them.
Pat Pledger