It is 1932 and Violet Speedwell is a surplus woman – one of millions of English women unable to marry after World War I decimated a generation of potential spouses. Tolerated with gentle exasperation by their families, these women live at a time when society has rigid expectations of what a single woman might do with her life. Violet is about to challenge those restrictions.
Choosing to leave her cantankerous mother and take up an office job in Winchester, Violet unexpectedly discovers a volunteer group of women embroidering cushions and kneelers for the city’s magnificent cathedral. While she finds friendship, support and creative fulfillment in the group, she also encounters condescension and prejudice. And in the background, fascism grows on the Continent and Hitler comes to power in Germany...In large and small ways, Violet must learn how to stand up for herself in a world that is still hostile to independent women.
Inspiration
I’ve always been fascinated by cathedrals, and decided to set a novel in one. Many have interesting stories attached, and few more so than Winchester. There is the famous tale of English Civil War soldiers throwing kings’ bones through a huge stained glass window. Or perhaps the story about the diver William Walker, who singlehandedly shored up the Cathedral’s foundations. Or Jane Austen’s grave, which doesn’t even mention that she was a celebrated author. I visited Winchester with those stories in mind for a novel.
Instead I was drawn to a set of 56 unusual embroidered cushions, as well as hundreds of kneelers, made by a group of volunteer women in the 1930s for the Choir stalls and Presbytery seats. I started to think about what such a group would have been like: the petty politics, the intrigues, the secrets. I conjured up a heroine and dropped her into the group, to see what would happen.
Reviews
A fascinating novel...Chevalier has a well-known gift for immersing herself in a subject. Her research here is so thorough and so heart-felt that she manages to make the ancient art of embroidery interesting. Reading this is deeply pleasurable and the ending made me cry. —Times (London)
Chevalier creates a convincing picture of the period. Most impressive are the portraits of individual women, who either pursue their freedom in small acts of disobedience, or quietly stitch their loss into comfort and beauty for generations to come. —Guardian
A subtle, delicate portrayal of a life of quiet power. The prose is stunning without any showboating; the historical detail beautifully interwoven with a light touch, and the cumulative effect is more powerful than immediately evident. This novel will stay with you for a long time, and may be Chevalier’s best yet. —Irish Times
With the manners and chortle-inducing humor that would make Jane Austen proud. —USA Today
A buoyant tale about the path to acceptance and joy — beginning, like all journeys, with one brave step. —People Magazine
Writing with quiet but devastating empathy, Chevalier pinpoints Violet’s predicament as a single woman, her unexpected emotional crisis and her struggle to give her life depth and meaning. I loved it. —Daily Mail
It’s a time and a place that is perfectly suited to Chevalier’s meticulous scene-setting, gentle pacing and gimlet eye for hidden hurts and secret longings. —Observer
