- Format: Kindle Edition
- File Size: 1320 KB
- Print Length: 344 pages
- Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0008153817
- Publisher: The Borough Press (5 Sept. 2019)
- Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B07NKWK95D
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
Synopsis
It is 1932, and the losses of the First World War are still keenly felt.
Violet Speedwell, mourning for both her fiancé and her brother and regarded by society as a ‘surplus woman’ unlikely to marry, resolves to escape her suffocating mother and strike out alone.
A new life awaits her in Winchester. Yes, it is one of draughty boarding-houses and sidelong glances at her naked ring finger from younger colleagues; but it is also a life gleaming with independence and opportunity. Violet falls in with the broderers, a disparate group of women charged with embroidering kneelers for the Cathedral, and is soon entwined in their lives and their secrets. As the almost unthinkable threat of a second Great War appears on the horizon Violet collects a few secrets of her own that could just change everything…
Review
I always get really excited when Tracy Chevalier publishes a new book, she is such a masterful storyteller. A Single Thread is her new novel, set in the 1930’s in Winchester with the cathedral playing a prominent role. Violet Speedwell lost her brother and fiancé in the Great War and now in her thirties finds her self a ‘surplus woman’ with little hope of marriage. She moves to Winchester in a bid for independence, takes a new job and joins the broderers who embroider kneelers and cushions for the Cathedral. This opens up a new life, new friends, new experiences, and secrets she must keep from friends and family. Beautifully written, with empathy and understanding this is simply a stunning read.
When I started reading A Single Thread one phrase jumped out to me, ‘surplus woman’. This is not a phrase I have heard before, but it was one that described those women, who due to the death of a fiancé, or simply due to the shortage of men in England after the war, were left on the shelf so to speak. With no marriage prospects they were expected to stay at home and look after their parents in their old age, become the spinster aunt and help with nieces or nephews and some gained employment. These women were treated with some suspicion and looked on like lesser citizens, with suspicion and pity. Violet is one of these women, leaving home to get away from her infuriating mother and moving to Winchester to get a job as a typist and live in a rented room. Violet’s story is one of struggling to make ends meet, and having to put up with the prejudices against her as a woman living on her own. However, she is strong, intelligent, confident and not frightened of speaking up for herself, all qualities that I greatly admired in her.When she joins the broderers, she makes friends with several like minded women in a similar situation to herself and situations that offer new prospects for her.
Tracy Chevalier always has an element of historical fact in her books. The broderers were a real group of women, led by Louisa Pesel, a character both in fact and fiction, who took on the project of embroidering kneelers and cushions for Winchester Cathedral, that are still in use today. This was a mammoth task to take on, and one the women did in their spare time, between work or running households. Louisa Pesel, like Violet, was one of the ‘surplus women’ and a talented embroiderer and designer, however she was a lot better off financially than Violet.
This is very much a book about women, their relationships with each other, family, their place in society and the difficulties they faced. It was very much a man’s world, where women were judged by their male counterparts and their relationships whether it be husband, brother, father, boss, boyfriend and lover. Women’s roles as mother, daughter, aunt, friend and lover are important themes in this book and we able to see how they develop over time, and change with greater understanding.
A Single Thread is a beautiful, poignant story told with great warmth and understanding by Tracy Chevalier. The period of the 1930’s opens up many talking points of women’s role in society and how that changed after the war due to the lack of men after the huge losses in the trenches. It is a time where change was happening but old fashioned values and parameters were still in place. Violet is certainly a women of her time, and I loved her independence, want for change and strength of character; I felt so many different emotions when reading her story. This is another stunning novel from Tracy Chevalier, full of historical detail, and with unforgettable characters. This is a must for your huge TBR piles, a book to savour, enjoy and delight in as I did.
I would to thank Borough Press via NetGalley for my copy of A Single Thread in return for an honest review.
I have included a few images below of the embroidery work of the broderers for Winchester Cathedral.
