the last runaway tracy chevalier summary

This a very gentle book which will appeal to anyone yearning for some relief from the stresses of everyday life. Encouraged by her brother Tom she asks for a job transfer from Southampton to Winchester where she encounters the Broderers and bell ringers in the cathedral. Violet Speedwell, a woman in her late 30s who lost her fiancé at Passchendaele, is leading a lacklustre life blighted by her embittered mother while she works as a typist for an insurance company. On the face of it these subjects pose little interest for me but she balances this book, set in the 1930s, by her tremendous characterisation. Tracy Chevalier’s latest book A Single Thread is a testament to the author’s unstinting flair for research - in this instance embroidery and bell-ringing. Thanks to HarperCollins and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I enjoyed some of the characters, Gilda and Dorothy, and how they made the system work for them, Mrs Harvey, the landlady, even Violet’s irascible mother.īut I couldn’t believe in Violet, she was far too passive, her relationship with Arthur, and the idea of her maybe stalker didn’t make any sense. I also learnt about bellringing, the history of the swastika in religious art, the history of Winchester and its cathedral. The description of family life in the 1930 was extremely well drawn, the claustrophobia, expectations, what women were deemed capable of, and how they were expected to behave.Īs a needlewoman I found the descriptions of the work of the Broderers very interesting. She is a typist in Winchester, just about surviving on her meagre wages, when she becomes involved with the Broderers of Winchester Cathedral, which gives her life more purpose, and opens new horizons and friendships. This is the story of Violet Speedwell, one of the generation of women who lost their fiancés in the First World War, and had to make a life as a single woman, looked down on by those who had husbands.

The last runaway tracy chevalier summary