I could read more attentively, take more notes, review those notes more often. I could seek out that expert who can explain all about the best straw to use when making a bonnet or how to take apart a Victorian grave: There are always more sources that might help me. In fact, as I look over my books I spot one or two for each novel I’ve written that I really should have read, and probably never will – though I keep them, just in case. There are still books about Vermeer on my bookshelves that I feel I should read – yet I wrote Girl with a Pearl Earring in 1998! When have I read all the studies relevant to my subject sought out diaries, notebooks, letters, ephemera visited locations and soaked up their atmosphere talked to experts and taken classes read books and newspapers and magazines contemporary to the period found information on the internet from passionate lovers of the subject looked at paintings, drawings, etchings from the period visited museums watched people weave, or quilt, or make hats, or paint. When have I done enough research to start writing an historical novel? She has been Chair of the Society of Authors, and judge of the Jewish Quarterly Prize, the Royal Society Science Book Prize, and the Orange Prize. She worked in publishing for several years before doing an MA in creative writing at the University of East Anglia.
In 1984 she moved to London, where she lives with her husband and son.
She grew up in Washington, DC and has a BA in English from Oberlin College (Ohio). Tracy Chevalier is the author of seven novels, including the recent The Last Runaway, as well the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring, which has sold over 4 million copies, been translated into 39 languages, and made into a film with Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson.
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