A Single Thread

Tracy Chevalier, author of The Girl With A Pearl Earring, has written a novel set in 1932 England about a young woman trying to support herself on her own. Violet Speedwell lost both her fiance and her brother in the Great War and struggles as a typist to earn enough for her rent and two meals a day. She finds a friend, Gilda, among the broderers, a group of women who embroider cushions and kneelers for the local cathedral. Through Gilda, Violet meets Arthur, a bell ringer at the church, who becomes very special to her. Chevalier’s characters are well-developed and they provide the reader with a snapshot of the difficulties faced by single women in 1930’s society.