What a wonderful book. On the surface a novel about needlepoint and campanology set in the 1930s would not be of much interest to me, but the characters were so confidently and compellingly drawn and the story so well written that I quickly became interested and the final third of the book just flew by, despite my tears in a couple of places.
Full of loss and hope with no easy answers especially at the end - a very rewarding read.

I've had a mixed response to Chevalier, loving some of her books, hating others (her ill-judged take on Othello, switching it to a story of pre-teen kids is in the latter category) - so I'm delighted to say that this one worked admirably for me. It's a quiet story set amongst the women embroiderers of Winchester cathedral during the 1930s and explores themes of friendship, kindness, and selfhood. Chevalier captures some of the petty small-mindedness of small communities and also offers up a gentle romance. This isn't a book for anyone looking for drama and high emotion but I liked the story of a 'surplus woman' creating a life for herself, albeit in blighted, straitened circumstances. There are times where the plotting becomes a little contrived in order to get the message across, but I liked the research and the evocation time and place.

Oh I loved this book!

Violet Speedwell, in her late 30s, unmarried and likely to remain so in the aftermath of WW1, escapes the confines of the stuffy Southampton home she shares with her complaining mother, and sets out to create a new independent life in Winchester.

The greatest change to Violet comes when she joins the Broderers at the cathedral, learning the art of canvas embroidery to create kneelers and cushions. Through this group she makes new friends, and encounters the boundaries of society in ways she has never before known.

Violet is an endearing, feisty and independent character, a thrill at such a time when women were there to look after the home, the children, and ageing parents.

The character of Louisa Pesel, the chief designer among the Broderers, was also remarkably strong, and I did not realise until finishing the book that she was a real person.

Highly recommended, a real insight into a fascinating topic.

Set in 1930s England, this is a gentle , unassuming novel which has hidden depths - like the embroidery theme which runs throughout, a wrong stitch or tangled thread can be hidden away at the back of the piece but it’s still there. The story pulls you into the lives of the generation of women affected by the losses of WW1 and the morals and expectations of the time. Tracy Chevalier developes her characters expertly - you will be willing them on to their small triumphs or sympathising with their disappointments but most of all, enjoying every page of this excellent novel.

I very much enjoyed this book - as with many of Tracey Chevalier's tales I was educated and entertained. I knew that there was a surplus of women after WW1 but had never really put much thought into the implications of this beyond that it would have been impossible to find a husband. If you had no one to support you then you had to work, and there weren't many 'jobs for women' and those that did exist were underpaid and with no employment rights. All this lead to a rather stifled and joyless existence.

The heroine finds entertainment and support through embroidery. Now if anyone suggested that I read a book on embroidery I would usually give them a strange look. However this was about more than the practicalities of needle and thread, it showed how camaraderie and a sense of purpose can change lives.

A thoughtful and fulfilling read.

Violet Speedwell has lost her brother and her fiancé in WW1 and like many other women finds herself without a role in life. She escapes her domineering mother to live in Winchester and secures a role as a typist. One day she happens across a group of Broderers in Winchester Cathedral who needlepoint kneelers for the church. She is accepted into the group and here her journey into her new found confidence begins. The Cathedral also has a group of male bell ringers who add another interesting facet to her story. Through friendship and community Violet gradually finds her voice in an era of surplus women and eventually overcomes hers grief and loss. This is a heartwarming story, beautifully written by Tracy Chevalier. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

IF you’d told me that a book about embroidery and needlepoint of tapestries and prayer stools set in and around Winchester Cathedral would be intriguing then I might have given you a funny look and doubted your judgement. When it’s the subject of a Tracy Chevalier novel however, it’s so much more than the sum of its parts and manages to weave its own kind of magic.

Novels which take a real person or persons and fictionalize their story whilst bringing in the historical aspects, political intrigue and battle of thje sexes of times gone by are fascinating to me. It’s that idea of seeing an historical object or something old like a picture, prayer stool or wooden seat and imagining the fingerprints of time dotted across it just waiting to be discovered. This gives me all the feels and it’s like stepping back into a time machine and seeing history come alive.

The writing is also sublime as always. Tracy sets this story in the 1930s, the fall out of the First World War. She integrates herself into the lifes of the women who learn needlepoint to be able to join the broderers group who work in the cathedral. Louisa Pesel was the head of this group and was a real life person!

It’s from then on that we are totally and utterly immersed in the lives of these women. Women who were expected to behave, to stay in their place, to expect the mundane and accept their lot in life. Women at that time largely outnumbered men after the devastation of war, but women were still not considered vital in many ways. This is explored in the novel and it’s sobering to read so many years later.

Despite the depression and the rumbles of another war, these women show amazing and admirable resilience. That is the story here and what a story it is.

Tracy writes at the end how the needlepoint seats are still there in Winchester Cathedral and there is also a chance to see work elsewhere. After reading this novel I’m going to try and go there if only to mentally shake hands with these women and their resilience when the world was as dark as it’s ever been.

I suppose that it is my own fault for imagining that a book about embroidery would be nonstop entertainment, but admittedly I was interested in the historical aspects. Put simply I found this book to be a little boring. The author is very detailed even about trivial events and sometimes I felt that I was simply reading Wikipedia vomited up on the page, some of the conversations are just overtly used for this purpose so don't flow naturally at all. Violet is a low-key feminist that I want to cheer for but she's written in a very unlikeable way so I never much enjoyed her inner voice or decision making. For whatever reason on the whole this book was just too nebulous for me and I really got no sense that this was a story that needed telling as it seemed more like several stitched together ideas.

This book is set in 1932. Violet Speedwell is still mourning the loss of her fiancé and brother in the Great War, and has become one of the thousands of ‘surplus’ women, following the deaths of a whole generation of men. She lives at home with her domineering mother with little hope of either love or affection. Violet braves a move to Winchester, finding a job and lodgings but struggles to do more than exist. She chances on the Broderers,, a group of ladies who have been tasked with embroidering kneeler for the Cathedral.

I wasn’t sure this book was for me at first, as it felt a bit of a slow starter. However, it was so obviously well and skilfully researched that it did draw me in. I empathised with Violet but also the other characters too, even the mother, which I didn’t expect. However I wasn’t sure about the inclusion of Violets stalker. There is a gentle humour and honesty that I really enjoyed, and I was really pleased to read at the end that Louisa Pesel was a real person. I haven’t read anything by this author before, but will definitely try her other titles. Thanks to NetGalley and The Borough Press for letting me read this.

Now, I'm not the target audience for this book. This book is set in the early 1930's about an unmarried thirty something woman who has suffered great losses, who is a typist and the book heavily features cathedrals, embroidery, bell ringing and holidays. I am a gay married man with a child, who likes eating twix chocolate bars and playing Mario games. Hey, we're the same age at least.



But. Having never read a Tracy Chevalier book I wasn't aware that her writing could wash away my scepticism within mere pages. She makes Violet come alive, she is flawed but strong, and her struggle to be free and independent is something you really root for.



I genuinely never thought stitching a kneeler for church could be such a well of emotion and drama, but I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Also impressive was the firm sense of place and time. Despite the obligatory Nazi foreshadowing (surprisingly the least interesting part of the book), this is a vivid picture of a society on the cusp of change when it comes to feminism, LGBT issues and emancipation.



I expected to leaf through a standard romance, but I ended up avidly reading a charming, involving, relatable story.

The gentle, understated style of this book reflects the period and the subject matter, but this belies the rich warmth of the writing and the absorbing nature of the gradually blossoming story of Violet, a late thirties spinster in a society built around the norms of marriage and family life between the two world wars. The author carefully prepares the canvas for her first stitches, setting her character within a suffocating war-torn family where duty and convention are more valued than independence. The desperation to escape cannot ease the entry into a much lonelier, financially insecure existence of a woman living alone in the 1930s but slowly she learns new skills and forges a fresh life for herself.
Tracy Chevalier masterfully pulls the threads surrounding Violet and her new-found friends into a beautifully crafted tapestry of sadness, determination and love which touches and inspires. Although so different from her other works, 'A Single Thread' bears the Chevalier stamp of convincing and thoughtful narrative which takes us into the mind of an often overlooked and certainly undervalued slice of mid-wars society with empathy and understanding. A lovely book!

A Single Thread by Tracy Chevalier
This new novel from one of my favourite historical writers shows the depth of research which she undertook to bring Britain in the 1930’s alive for her reader. Violet Speedwell is one of the “surplus women” of the period whose fiancé had been lost in the war. She has reached the age of 38 and finds life with her cantankerous mother stifling and so determines to make a life for herself in Winchester. Her financial circumstances are clearly conveyed through the descriptions of her weeks of living on paste sandwiches.
Her decision to move to Winchester brings her into contact with the cathedral Broderers and the description of the painstaking work to create the cushions and kneelers for the cathedral are beautiful. She also develops an interest in campanology (and a particular bell ringer) and this too is described in fascinating detail.
This novel, based on real characters is engaging and paints a wonderful portrait of a lost time and also the way in which people reacted to those involved in less conventional relationships.
This was a highly readable and very pleasurable novel. My thanks go to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this book in return for an honest review.

I found the first quarter of the book very slow going, The book was very thoroughly researched and I was particularly interested in the sections about the Cathedral. The detail on the needlework and bell ringing was more than could sustain my interest.

The characters were well drawn and once Violet's life took off I was totally gripped.

In a world that increasingly appears to be going mad this book is a soothing, calming balm! The story is a gentle book about a bye gone age when societies rules and foibles are strictly obeyed. Tracy Chevalier is an author who can create a picture, a character and an atmosphere effortlessly. The main character is Violet Speedwell and the era is the early 1930’s, the setting is principally the Winchester area and much of the focus is on the cathedral. Violet is a lovely character although the book has a number of great characters some very likeable (Tom, Arthur, Miss Pesel, etc) and some less likeable such as Violets moaning minnie of a mother. Violet has known great sadness as her fiancé and brother were killed in the Great War but she is trying to get her life back on track and the Winchester Broderers and bell ringing are very key in that recovery. I found the embroidery aspect fascinating (though I have zero ability with a needle being totally cack handed!) and a lot of this aspect of the book is grounded in reality and much of the work referred to still exists in the beautiful cathedral.
I love the gentle humour in the book and there are some lovely and absurd stories that are so ridiculously English.!There are moments of menace too and Violet shows just how self possessed she can be at times like that. Society of the time is well depicted too especially people’s attitudes to same sex relationships and unmarried mothers although some characters refuse to bow to the conventions of the day. There is unrequited love but healing too as Violet is able to move on from her losses and in her own inimitable way finds solace. The ending of the book is lovely and optimistic albeit with the spectre of Hitler hanging over the world.
Tracy Chevalier is a wonderful author and it was a privilege to receive an early copy of this book.

A delightful book. I think the most fascinating parts for me were the forays into the world of the Broderers. Being a stitcher myself, I could appreciate the finer poibts and imagine the designs organised by the charming Louisa Pesel.
Violet Speedwell is, like so many women after the war, grieving for a brother and sweetheart. She finds her awful mother just too much to live with and relocates to Winchester, such a lovely city. Although at times I found her a little too passive, it was good to see that she did not adhere totally to the 'respectable'maiden lady of the 30s, having friends who were lesbians, meeting 'sherrymen' at times and generally not always following the rules of society.
In the background of her life story another War is gathering momentum.
I enjoyed this quietly written book. Thanks to NetGalley and The Borough Press for a review copy.

Tracey Chevalier has written a gentle period novel about people during the wars who have all suffered loses - some of them find solace in bell-ringing and embroidery for Winchester cathedral. One of the characters was a real person who lead the design team for the kneelers. The drama revolves around Violet, a passionate spinster and Arthur, who is married to a sick wife. Violet is a feisty and interesting character. I enjoyed the novel and found it to be well-written and plotted. The period was subtly depicted with descriptions of the meals, hardships, clothing, entertainment and attitudes of the time. The only bit that jarred was the sub plot of Jack Wells who came out of nowhere and stalked Violet. There was no explanation for this and I felt t was just put in to add tension to a fairly quiet domestic story.

Violet Speedwell is a "surplus" woman in the 1930s - her fiance was killed in the war, as was one of her brothers, and she is still single, having to work as a typist to support herself. Desperate for independence from her difficult mother, she moves to Winchester and one day accidentally attends a service for the Broderers - the women who embroider the kneelers and cushions for the Cathedral. And so a new phase of her life begins, with new friends and different sort of future ahead.

The main issue I had with this was, as some others have said, that the love interest was 20+ years older than Violet. She's the same kind of age as his son would have been, and I don't buy the instant attraction. Other than that, it's a well written story and the "surplus" women are often overlooked in books, as they were in real life, so it's nice to read something from a different point of view. The prevailing views of the time about how single women were valued (or not) are brought out pretty clearly as well, which was frustrating to read even though it was realistic!

It's quite a gentle plot, as you'd expect of something where part of the plot centres around embroidery, and a little forgettable, but it's well written overall.

3.5 stars


This felt like a gentler read than some of Chevaliers other books... but it was warm and full of good characters. I'm afraid I took rather a liking to the mother.
Some great history to go along with the embroidery of the kneelwrs and cushions of Winchester cathedral. Also,quite how hard it was for a single woman trying to make a life for herself after the war.
Definitely one I'll be buying for someone this Christmas.

Such a lovely novel; gentle yet about a time - the 1930s - that was difficult, especially for the generation of women 'widowed' by the Great War. Violet Speedwell has ambitions, aspirations that are curtailed by the loss of a fiance; and decides to make her own life by not following society's expectations for a 'spinster'. She 'gatecrashes' the Winchester embroidery group, and this changes everything!

'A Single Thread' is beautifully written, compassionate about people whose lives do not follow society's norms - yet they are not wrong. It could be described as a 'woman's book', but not pejoratively; and I would recommend it to anyone who appreciates good writing.

Through the eyes of Violet Speedwell this story considers the plight of the many women who, because of the deaths of husbands or fiancés in the Great War, found no obvious role in society. It’s set in the early 1930s. Men were so greatly outnumbered by women that the role of spinster mainly meant life in your parents’ home – a permanent childhood in a way – or working for a living on inadequate wages and living in a room in a lodging house. With her flaws and contradictions, I was rooting for Violet. Everything, including a monstrous mother still devastated by the loss of her elder son in the war, was stacked against her. She was her own woman, and I loved the way she dealt with the blows and didn’t lose herself in the process. She also befriended two similar aged ladies who became a lesbian couple. She was warned off being seen with them in case it affected her, too, as though it were a contagion. The world wasn’t ready to acknowledge that as a valid relationship at the time. It’s a great book which covers some important issues for that generation.