A Single Thread

I am amazed. I’ve read several of Tracy Chevalier's books. I expected yet another historically based story that would be a quick and interesting read. This book is so much more. It’s clearly based in a time and place but it interleaves a well known event, British women having to deal with a world where many of the men they would have married died in World War I and the numbers were clearly against them having a normal life. But along with that she brings to life two lesser known stories of how women were reimaging the beauty of the Winchester Cathedral by creating cushions and kneelers, using needlepoint, to match the grace of their surroundings, and the men who rang the bells in those cathedrals.

But this book hit me personally. show more Bear with me while I take a trip down memory lane. In 1957 I was in Junior High and in Brooklyn kids like me were put into SP, Special Progress, meaning we only spent two years in Junior High rather than the normal three. But that also meant we had only two shop classes and the boys in my class were assigned to Art Weaving rather than metal or wood working. That was for girls so we refused to go along. So the principal came in one day and politely told us, “Deal with it.” So we did. I wound up creating a beautiful sampler of a tree which I framed and have to this day. I understood perfectly Chevalier’s description of the calming effect of working on one of these. Violet, the main character uses these to escape the real world issues she had little control over

Back to the book. Violet has many issues to deal with even beyond being a “surplus woman” as they were called, and the men who took advantage of them. She’s personally lost an older brother and a fiancée to the war and a father to old age and is left with a mother angry at the world and taking it out on Violet. She escapes by getting a typing job in another town and finds a group of women doing embroidery on canvas to supply Winchester Cathedral with kneelers, bench covers, and donation bags. They teach her how to stitch and she finds comfort in their midst. Slowly but surely her world expands to the women and eventually the men who ring the bells. Eventually she finds herself attracted to one of the bellringers, a much older man, living in another town married to a very sick wife. I don’t want to give away the whole story but you can see how this has been set up. She’s got things to deal with and no obvious way out. Stay tuned.

What is extremely impressive is the amount of detail. Violet is emblematic of a whole generation who had to do things like go into a workforce where they could at best achieve acceptance as long as they would put up with low wages. We learn intricate details about what is then considered embroidery on canvas and the types of stitches available. Then there are the details about the magnificent Cathedral and its place in history. There's also a very British approach to holidays spent hiking. There’s more- the ringing of the bells. Who knew how complex and regimented it was. At the end of the book Chevalier acknowledges her debt to many. She immediately lets us know that what is referred to throughout the book as embroidery on canvas is what today call needlepoint. She’s clearly done quite a bit of research and lets us in on the secret. There really was a group of women who had a leader determined to provide beautiful pieces to complement the magnificence of the Cathedral.

This worked on all levels. I highly recommend it. show less

Not just any author could craft a compelling narrative from embroidery and bellringing, but Tracy Chevalier isn't just any author. The book follows Violet Speedwell, a "surplus woman" after so many men, including her fiancé, were killed in WWI. Violet's been living with her widowed mother, and has had just about enough of her constant complaints and criticisms, so she moves a scant 12 miles away to Winchester, home of the famous Winchester Cathedral (where Jane Austen and many others are buried). As happy as she is to be on her own, she struggles with the challenges of supporting herself (she does have a job, but it barely pays enough for food and a rented room) and finding some kind of social life, all in a world that still doesn't show more look very fondly on women on their own.

On a visit to Winchester Cathedral, Violet stumbles up a Blessing of the Embroidery service, and decides to join the cathedral broderers, who are engaged in a years-long project to embroider new kneelers and cushions for the cathedral. And thus begins Violet's journey of self-discovery. Most of Violet's journey involves learning how to be a friend (this is what leads her to meet the bellringers), how not to be guilted into moving back in to take care of her mother, and, generally speaking, how to be an independent person.

Like all of Chevalier's books, the reader is immersed in the world that she creates with her words. Even the details of embroidery stitches and the difference between ringing a set of 5 bells versus 9 bells is interesting as we learn alongside Violet and see the world opening up in front of her. show less

Nothing much happens in A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier, so why did I fall in love with it? It's not the first time this has happened either. Stoner by John Williams is the slow moving story of an ordinary man and it was such an exquisite portrait of his life that it instantly became an all-time favourite of mine.

Violet Speedwell is the protagonist in A Single Thread and in 1932 she is reeling following the painful loss of her brother and fiance in WWI. Violet decides to leave home and try to make it on her own in Winchester. Life is tough for surplus women and Violet does her best to get by and carve out a life of joy for herself.

While admiring the architecture of the local cathedral, she comes across the work of a group of show more broderers and decides she'd like to make a kneeler. It will be a permanent reminder of her life when she too is gone.

I've often shared Violet's thoughts that when I die, there will be no lasting evidence I was ever here. One of the reasons I love looking at architecture, paintings and needlework is that I can wonder about the hands that painstakingly created these precious objects from the past and imagine the lives their creators lived. I'm sure the desire to create something that might just outlive me was a small part of the reason I started stitching in the first place. Creating a tangible gift for a loved one with your own hands is something special and Violet wants to do this too.

This combination of historical fiction and stitching - along with the unexpected inclusion of bell ringing - was a sure sign I was going to enjoy this novel.

Adding to my reading experience was the fact I suggested this book for a monthly book club on GoodReads called A Stitcher's Book Club. A couple of us read A Single Thread at the same time and I'm sure this added to my overall reading enjoyment.

Containing themes of family, duty, responsibility, post-war culture, grief and expectations of women in society, A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier was a real feel good read and I heartily enjoyed it. show less

Do I want to read a new Tracy Chevalier book? It's a no-brainer, I would always say a big resounding yes! She's an incredibly versatile author when you think of her back catalogue and here she is again concentrating on another period in history, this time the more recent history of those difficult interwar years.

Our heroine is Violet Speedwell. Aged 38 when the book opens in 1932, she's one of the surplus women, those who remain spinsters because of the loss of so many men in World War 1. Violet, however, wants to be anything but surplus. She wants to be useful, she wants to be independent, she doesn't want to be confined to looking after her mother for the rest of her life.

Talking of her mother, Mrs Speedwell is a fabulous character, show more full of complaints and poor Violet can do nothing right. I had to smile! I loved Violet though. That hint of steel running through her core made her so courageous in the face of so much adversity. She moves alone to Winchester from Southampton, surviving on fish paste and cress sandwiches, some days forfeiting a hot meal to have the treat of a trip to the pictures, and yet she's doing it, she's branching out alone. It is at Winchester Cathedral that she embarks on a new hobby: she becomes a broderer, part of a group of women embroidering kneelers. It's also in Winchester that she meets someone who is destined to change her future but enough of that - read this book for yourself to find out!

Chevalier has hit just the right tone with this book. The horror of the first war is still hanging over so many people, the losses still just as strong as they were then, and yet Hitler's power in Germany is growing and a second war is looming on the horizon. It's such an interesting time to read about, especially from a woman's point of view, and one of Violet's age.

A Single Thread is a book I wanted to devour but I also wanted to savour every word. The descriptions are so rich and the author has a particular talent for making her characters not only three-dimensional but also completely fascinating. They come to life on the page and are a people-watcher's dream come true.

This is a wonderful read, a gentle one and yet so full of life. It's the perfect read for those of us who enjoy social history, those little details about how people lived their ordinary lives. I found it to be compelling reading and I loved how it ended, uplifting and hopeful for the future. show less

Memories of the dead beset the house in Southhampton, England, where Violet Speedwell lives with her widowed mother. It’s 1932, sixteen years since Violet’s older brother was killed in the Great War, but to Mrs. Speedwell, it’s as though he died yesterday. She grieves him and her late husband to such lengths that she has no room in her heart for Violet, nor even for her other son, Tom, though he’s given her two grandchildren.

In fact, Mrs. Speedwell is so unfailingly nasty, impossible to please, and entirely self-centered — talking nonstop of how she’s been put upon — that Violet comes to the end of a very long rope. She moves to Winchester, where she rents a room in a boardinghouse and obtains a transfer to a branch of the show more insurance company where she works as a typist.

Be it known that Violet is thirty-eight, lost her fiancé in the war, and has moved all of twelve miles. She’s one of many Englishwomen who remain “spinsters,” as they are called, with tacit or explicit disdain, the uncounted casualties of war. But her mother has never uttered a word of sympathy or condolence.

And to no surprise, when Violet leaves, Mrs. Speedwell throws a fit worthy of King Lear and is not in the least mollified by her daughter’s weekly visits. Said pilgrimages, incidentally, cost train fare that Mum would never think to underwrite, a sacrifice because Violet’s job in Winchester covers the rent and little else. Even people who don’t know her well remark on how thin she looks; she never gets enough to eat. Freedom has its price.

Then too, the other “girls” she works with, younger, less conscientious, or empathic than herself, snub her, except when they want something. They live up to their employer’s prejudices by focusing on when and whom to marry, which means they would leave his freezing, inhospitable office and bequeath a mountain of untyped insurance contracts. Heavens! Just shows you can’t trust a girl.

Looking for a social outlet, Violet volunteers to embroider cushions for Winchester Cathedral. An unusual idea, perhaps, but she loves the cathedral, which puts her in mind of other desires, most particularly the wish to leave her mark on the world.

I have to confess that embroidery has never interested me, but Chevalier brings the craft to life, because she invests care in who the broderers are, the egos involved, and the power struggles that inevitably result. These women can be fierce in their loyalties and ostracism, especially if they sense behavior they believe improper. Nevertheless, within this vicious sewing circle, to which Violet recruits others, she finds purpose, friendships, a measure of confidence, and, through proximity, an attraction for a cathedral bellringer, a married man twenty years her senior. Heavens, indeed.

Chevalier has portrayed both the generosity and small-mindedness of English provincial life to a T. Another “quiet” novel, in other words, in which the author displays her well-known gift for characterization and deftly explores themes of gender roles and sexuality without earnestness. I particularly salute how she depicts women crushing other women, beating them down through social snobbery or selfishness, hurting the very people with whom they could make common cause.

Without calling undue attention to the irony, Chevalier shows how Violet’s male boss exploits her, that brother Tom’s condescension and sexism undermine her, or that a man seems bent on stalking her—and still, other women find ways to cut her down, voicing the same attitudes that men do. Through that, Chevalier wants you to recognize how women often attack their sisters or others who represent their own interests, out of fear or envy.

Sometimes, quiet books speak loudly. This is one. show less

At the age of 38 Violet Speedwell is unlikely to marry and have a family. She is part of the generation of women who lost their fiancees and husbands in the Great War and are now 'surplus'. Violet's elder brother was also killed and her mother has never recovered making life difficult for Violet. She resolves to be more independent and moves to Winchester with her typist job. Life is hard and Violet struggles to make ends meet but she falls in with the Broderers making cushions for the Cathedral and her life takes a number of unexpected turns.
Chevalier is a writer at the height of her powers and this is a quiet yet very powerful book. Focusing in on the inequalities facing women in the 1930s Violet is an interesting heroine, throwing show more off the shackles of convention in a series of mild rebellions against the role of spinster that society has awarded to her. the story is straightforward and the book reads like a gentle historical novel but underneath it all are deep plot lines. Chevalier does not shy away from talking about lesbianism, sexual assault, sex outside marriage and the Nazis but it seems natural and not designed to shock. A brilliant book. show less

A Single Thread - Chevalier
Audio performance by Fenella Woolgar
4.5 stars

I was surprised that I was pulled into this book so quickly. The basic premise was so bleak. Violet Speedwell is one of England’s ‘surplus’ women following the losses of WW1. She is grieving the loss of her fiance and one of her brothers in the war. The death of her father left her with the care of her very unpleasant mother. When this book begins, in 1932, she is attempting to live independently in Winchester. She has a room in a boarding house while working as an underpaid typist. She is depressed and malnourished. Not a cheerful beginning.

The fictional Violet Speedwell begins her recovery when she becomes attached to the historical Louisa Pesel and her show more group of volunteer ‘broderers’. At the time Pesel was designing needlepoint cushions and kneelers for Winchester Cathedral. A small army of volunteers worked to complete the designs. Chevalier puts Violet into this group of women. She learns to stitch, acquires new friends, and finds a way to improve the quality of her own life. Within the cathedral the women’s stitchery group is juxtaposed with the group of male bell ringers. Violet becomes equally interested in the bells and one of the bell ringers.

The book is very focused on the changing roles of women and the challenges faced by women who cannot or will not conform to traditional expectations. Chevalier is good at this. This book is set more than 100 years later than Remarkable Creatures, but many of the feminist concerns are the same. Violet has an uphill climb to take control of her own life within her current circumstances. It’s often a painful battle. In the end, there’s a sense of victory. It’s encouraging, but it feels like a fragile victory. It’s 1932, and the potential of a second war overshadows Violet’s small rebellions.

I enjoyed the historical context of this book. I googled the details of the embroideries of Winchester Cathedral and listened to traditional bell changes. Fenella Woolgar’s audio performance was perfect for the contemplative atmosphere of this book. show less