Tracy Chevalier is one of those authors. The type of author who has a devoted legion of fans with an insatiable appetite for her work and who eagerly await the release date of each new novel. If you are one who willingly raises your hand and admits to being such a fan then you will recently have received a well needed literary fix in the form of her latest book Remarkable Creatures. Having bought said novel, the first thing that struck me was the front cover “Tracy Chevalier. Author of Girl With a Pearl Earring” and this is the other truth about Miss Chevalier, she is an author living in the constant shadow of her greatest achievement.
Her latest novel Remarkable Creatures sets the scene of early nineteenth century Lime Regis and tells the true story of Mary Anning, a young girl who sets the scientific world alight when she discovers the fossil of an ancient dinosaur. Tracy admits there was a very real sense of responsibility involved with creating a story for someone who actually existed: “I did the same thing with Vermeer in Girl With a Pearl Earring, didn’t know then that it would be taken so seriously. This time I’m aware of that, so have been as true and careful as I could.”
And being careful is not something Tracy takes lightly. A meticulous amount of research goes into her novels, a necessity when vividly created and detailed historical settings are integral to her work. And, as for writer’s block…“Writer’s block is for wimps – or men. I have only ever heard men complain of writer’s block. Frankly, I have so little time to write (only during my son’s school hours) that I can’t afford to be blocked.” So true Tracy.
Unlike her heroine Mary Anning however, 1810 Lyme Regis would not be the ideal setting for Tracy’s own story and could she be relocated to any historical epoch she admits she’d chose a time somewhat less stable: “I’d live in 17th-century England. A jittery time, with civil war shoving royalty and religion off centre stage (for a little while). And I would get to meet Shakespeare and John Donne. Very exciting.”
As with her previous novels Remarkable Creatures is spun with the underlying currents of first love that Tracy explores with such subtle evocation. Disappointingly however, Tracy admits her own first dabblings with the world of romance were not quite so novel worthy: “Ha! No! I had a particularly bad first kiss, but aren’t they all? You’re too nervous for it to be good. Subsequent kisses were much more memorable. It’s interesting though, I think mature relationships are harder to write about. In my next book, though, I’m going to follow a relationship through, from first kiss to mature resignation.”
Remarkable Creatures however, is primarily about female friendship and how it can transcend class boundary in a way that love in the early nineteenth century could not. Mary finds an unlikely companion in the form of Elizabeth Philpot, a middle class spinster with a shared interest in fossils, and Tracy reveals it is Elizabeth whom she feels an affinity with: “There is always one character in each of my books whom I feel closer to than the others. In Pearl Earring it was Griet; in Falling Angels, Maud; in The Lady and the Unicorn, Alienor. In Remarkable Creatures it’s Elizabeth Philpot. Elizabeth stands back and watches what Mary does, which is sort of what I do.”
Standing back and watching is a modest way of describing her incredibly insightful and eloquent writing style but Tracy is clearly proud of her achievements, though she looks back on each of her novels with a critical eye: “There are things I like and dislike about each. It’s kind of like having children. My favourite is always the one I’ve just worked on. It takes a while for it to settle down with the others.”
And so what of Girl With a Pearl Earring, the novel inescapably associated with her name. I ask Tracy if she feels pressure to match its phenomenal success: “Always. And of course that’s impossible. I try to put it out of my mind and just write what I’m interested in. It helps to have some distance – Pearl Earring came out ten years ago and I know if I had to write that book again I’d do it differently.”
The film adaptation of Girl With a Pearl Earring starring Scarlett Johansson and Colin Firth received mixed reviews but Tracy herself seems thankfully happy with the outcome: “I think it looks great and is true to the
emotional essence of the book. The book and I both came out of that experience unscathed, for which I am very grateful!”
And what advice does she have to offer to the University of York fresh meat: “Ho ho! I had a wonderful time at university. I would say: Enjoy that clean slate feeling. No one knows you, and you can recreate yourself to suit yourself in a way you never can again. Make the most of it”. Words of wisdom if ever I heard them.