Tracy Chevalier

Tracy Chevalier (born October 1962 in Washington, DC) is a bestselling historical novelist. She is of Romande Swiss descent (with possible French Huguenot ancestry) on her father's side, and lives in London with her husband and son.

Chevalier was raised in Washington, D.C and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland. After receiving her B.A. in English from Oberlin College, she moved to England in 1984 where she worked several years as a reference book editor. Leaving her job in 1993, she began a year-long M.A in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her tutors on the course were novelists Malcolm Bradbury and Rose Tremain.

Her career began with the book The Virgin Blue but she became well known with her novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, a book based on the creation of the famous painting by Vermeer.