Tracy Chevalier at University of Leeds

Bestselling author Tracy Chevalier – best known for her second novel, Girl with a Pearl Earring – is visiting Leeds to introduce her latest book The Glass Maker, which came out in the UK in September. She’ll be discussing her craft and the importance of reading for pleasure with experienced literary chair and resident host at The Yard Hampshire Rebecca Fletcher.

Tracy Chevalier FRSL was born and grew up in Washington, DC, moving to London in the mid-1980s after graduating with a BA in English from Oberlin College in Ohio. She worked for several years in publishing as a reference book editor, while “writing short stories on the side”, then signed up to do an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia. There she began her first novel, The Virgin Blue, which was published in 1997 and Girl with a Pearl Earring followed in 1999 – it was subsequently made into a 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth. She has now written 11 acclaimed novels and is working on her 12th.

As a writer of historical novels, Tracy Chevalier is expert at setting her stories in other times and places, transporting the reader on fictional journeys – this involves a lot of research, and this process is all consuming: “If possible I like to do what my characters do, as then it’s easier to understand it and describe it. So I tried painting when I wrote Pearl Earring; quilting for The Last Runaway; needlepoint for A Single Thread; glass beads for The Glass Maker. I visited a weaving studio for The Lady and the Unicorn; spent time with redwoods and sequoias for At the Edge of the Orchard; looked for fossils on the beaches near Lyme Regis for Remarkable Creatures.”

This event takes place in the Laidlaw Library, University of Leeds, and will also be live-streamed to public libraries through the Living Knowledge Network. The Living Knowledge Network is a partnership between public and national libraries in the UK, powered by the British Library. Together they create unforgettable exhibitions, events and experiences that celebrate the incredible impact of libraries everywhere. This event is in conjunction with The Queen’s Reading Room, a reading charity and podcast on a mission to spread the joy and power of reading. Formed from Her Majesty Queen Camilla’s book club launched in 2021, it is committed to helping people find and connect with the books that will make them lifelong readers.

If you like the sound of this event, check out our preview of Jodi Picoult’s reading in October here.