Tracy Chevalier is a doyenne of historical fiction, having authored 11 best-selling novels - including Girl with a Pearl Earring, published in 1999. Before we begin chatting about her latest offering, The Glassmaker, she takes me on a quick tour of Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in Dorchester. Chevalier’s been a trustee for the last three years, post the museum’s £16.4million refurbishment. ‘I’ve had a connection with Dorset for 30 years and used to visit this museum when it was small, dusty, and you opened drawers. I loved the idea of being involved with something that had been redeveloped and was bringing Dorset to people in new and different ways.’
As we wander around, looking at the ink pens that Thomas Hardy inscribed with the names, Tess and Jude; a box covered in beautiful stumpwork embroidery; a hoard of coins discovered in Piddletrenthide, I ask whether ancient objects hold great power when it comes to giving her ideas. The answer is an emphatic yes.
‘I’ve had two ideas for books when in museums. One was when I visited the Dinosaur Museum in Dorchester and saw a display on Mary Anning (which led to Remarkable Creatures, her 2010 novel set in Lyme Regis). The other was a William Blake exhibition at Tate Britain, after which I wrote Burning Bright (2007). And of course I use them all the time for research.’
In fact, it was another museum, the Natural History Museum in Milan, that saw the seed sewn for Chevalier’s latest novel, published this September. In 2010 she was giving a talk, and afterwards a man approached her to ask whether she’d ever considered writing about Venetian glass. He’d come prepared, handing her two books, which she put on her shelf when she returned home. ‘However, the idea just sort of stuck. The man, Giorgio Teruzzi, worked at the museum as a palaeontologist but had this passion for Venetian glass beads. He suggested they’d be a perfect subject for me as glass beads were made mainly by women. A favourite topic of mine - along with artisanal crafts.’
Nine years later she began working on The Glassmaker, set on the island of Murano from where, through the eyes of her female maestra, Orsola Rosso, we follow the history of Venice over 500 years.
One protagonist? 500 years?
I loved the novel and found myself easily able to suspend reality and follow Orsola and her family across the centuries. However, the book took a bit of reworking to create its seamless transitions.
‘I finished my first draft and sent it to my US and UK editors,’ Chevalier explains ‘having not explained my plan beforehand. I was at Dorchester train station, on my way to London when my UK editor called. It was noisy, it was rainy, and I hate having those kinds of conversations on my mobile. “Tracy, what have you done?” she asked. “The story’s great, the setting, the characters, but shouldn’t they all be dead?” I went and got myself a can of gin and tonic and was sitting on the train...’
Hang on. Where did you get a G&T at Dorchester station?
‘I walked across town to Waitrose - I had a little time, and I was mad. I might have actually got myself two cans.’ She laughs. ‘Then, sitting on the train I recalled her saying, “Well you have two options: one is that you limit it to 50 years of Venetian history; the other is you go with Orsola’s descendants,” and I thought, uh uh, I don’t want to do either of those. But you know, she was absolutely right. I hadn’t explained anything. I think you get so buried in writing something that you lose perspective of what the reader is going to think.’
The stone skimming analogy came later in the process. ‘I wanted to explain it to the reader in concrete form.’ Is she a good skimmer? ‘Well, I’ve skimmed them all my life. My brother taught me. I think my best is 10.’ And has the time challenge made her an even better writer? ‘I’m pleased that I’ve done something that’s a little different. And I’m not sure I could have done it several books back.’
Venice is a city that Chevalier holds dear, having honeymooned there with her husband, Jonathan Drori (author of Around the World in 80 Trees and Around the World in 80 Plants). ‘Since then, we’ve been back lots, including visiting bi-annually for the Art Biennale. I like Venice most off-season, in November and January, when there’s no-one there. And it’s a city that, more than anywhere else, feels timeless. There are no cars, it’s orientated around water with buildings from the 15th century. You get lost all the time and sort of lost from time. You feel so disconnected, not caring about what’s going on in the outside world.’
Most of the novel’s action takes place on the island of Murano, which is a short boat ride from Venice, for centuries it has been one of the world’s main centres for glassmaking. As usual Chevalier tried her hand at the craft and now declares herself, ‘Absolutely in awe of glassmakers. Glass is heavy and incredibly hot when you’re handling it. It’s also very easy for it to get out of your control. The moment you heat it up, it just goes crazy.’
As with all her work, The Glassmaker’s level of research and detail is incredible (although never to the detriment of the story). And it’s trying out the crafts that is key to the authenticity of Chevalier’s writing. ‘I tried making glass beads on Murano, and the woman told me that, because glass becomes liquid when heated, I should go home, get some runny honey, take two chopsticks and play with it. I never would have known that fact – it’s not something that’s written down. Nor would I know how, when working with molten glass, your front gets incredibly hot (your face almost burning) but your back is cold.’
I ask whether, like with the quilting and embroidery she took up after writing The Last Runaway and A Single Thread, glassmaking is a craft she’ll continue with. ‘To be honest the flame scares me a little. It would take an enormous amount of work to get good at it, or even to be safe.’
Writing about artisanal crafts has become one of Chevalier’s trademarks. ‘I’m always trying to create a bridge between the past and present. You could transpose a 16th century person to today and the essence of human nature would still be the same. For instance, a similar sense of humour. Exploring crafts is another way of establishing this connection. Historically our ancestors made everything – their furniture, food, clothes – and to get readers to appreciate this aspect has become more and more important to me. I very much value craftsmanship – I would always want to buy glass earrings that are hand-made rather than stamped out. It’s a bit like when I make quilts. I still finish them by hand. Machine stitching might be tighter and more accurate, but it doesn’t have the same feel.’
A fascinating detail in the novel is that the beadwork for which Native American Indians are famous used glass ‘seed’ beads shipped from Murano, traded for things like furs. ‘Being from North America,’ Chevalier says, ‘I saw it as what they had always done. However, prior to the 19th century they would use clay beads, quills from porcupines and other animals. A completely different look.’
It’s five years since her last book, A Single Thread (set around Winchester Cathedral after the First World War) - normally she produces one every three. ‘I didn’t relish the gap – I was worried that my readers would forget me.’ (They haven’t – she’s already started a relentless publicity tour.) Covid was a major delaying factor, and the novel covers both the plague that killed a quarter of Venice’s population in 1575-6 and the 2020 pandemic. Murano was, at the start, a safe place for its residents. Did Dorset become the same for her?
With, thankfully, great museums in both locations.
Tracy Chevalier will be talking about The Glassmaker at the Dorchester Literary Festival (October 12 – 19) on Tuesday, October 15 (6pm) at the Dorford Centre. Book tickets from August 31 at dorchesterliteraryfestival.com
The Glassmaker by Tracy Chevalier is published by The Borough Press, on September 11 at £20.
In The Glassmaker, Orsola Rosso makes glass beads to boost the family’s dwindling finances. Using a single flame burning over animal fat (tallow), the heat is boosted by foot bellows. Beads are still crafted the same way, except it’s now a gas flame - eradicating the ‘stench of rancid meat’ the makers endured. The glass is melted onto a metal rod, held in one hand. In the other, various tools are used to create different shapes and colour combinations.
‘I tried it three times,’ Chevalier says. ‘You can never stop turning the glass, and if you add another colour they heat and cool at different rates. I made some plain beads that were okay. But the moment I tried to decorate them it was a mess.’
In Venice, bead-making is still mainly done by women. A few do work in the furnaces, but it’s still very much a male domain.
