5 minute read
Random 19 - Tracy Chevalier
The Random 19 with worldfamous novelist Tracy Chevalier.
Tracy Chevalier FRSL is an author of 10 novels, perhaps best known for the international bestseller Girl with a Pearl Earring, a timeless modern classic that became an international bestseller with over five million copies sold around the world.
Her novel Remarkable Creatures, about the fossil hunter Mary Anning, has recently been made into the film Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet.
Tracy is a Trustee of the Dorset Museum and the British Library, an Ambassador for the Woodland Trust, and a Patron of the Dorchester Literary Festival and the Lyme Regis Museum. Tracy and her husband divide their time between London and the Piddle Valley.
1. What’s your relationship with the Blackmore Vale (the area, not us!)?
We’ve had a cottage in the Piddle Valley since 2004. Since July 2020 we’ve lived here full time. It’s a better place to be in a pandemic.
2. What was the last song you sang out loud in your car?
American Pie by Don McLean; I was coming back from the supermarket in Sherborne.
3. Last movie you watched? Would you recommend it?
My Octopus Teacher, a documentary about a diver’s relationship with an octopus he sees every day. It’s very moving. equipped with a magical power source, a phone and a laptop)?
4. It’s Friday night - you have the house to yourself, and no work is allowed. What are you going to do?
A big G&T, tortilla chips and some trash telly!
5. If you were sent to an island for a year and could only bring three things, what would
you bring (the island is already • A guitar - so that I can learn how to play. • A Good Pillow. Never unrestimate the power of a good pillow. • Moby Dick. Because it’s long, and I haven’t read it.
6. Who’s your celebrity crush?
Jodie Foster.
7. What would you like to tell 15yr old you? ‘You are going to be amazed’
8. What book did you read last year that stayed with you?
The Enchanted April by Elizabeth von Arnim, about four women who go on holiday together in Italy without knowing one another, and find themselves. It was during lockdown and I was missing travel!
9. What’s your secret superpower?
I find four-leaf clovers easily.
10. What shop can you not pass without going in?
Pretty much any jewellery shop...
11. Favourite quote? Movie, book or inspirational - we won’t judge.
12. Write the review for the last thing you cooked (no cheating - the actual last thing!).
I made pasta with capers, avocado, basil and lemon zest. It is a wonderful, quick, nofail recipe by Anna Jones. My guests loved it. I urge you to look it up - my tip is ‘use more avocado’ (or simply click here. You’re welcome - Ed)
13. A penguin just walked in the door wearing a panama hat. Why is he here?
He is looking for Paddington Bear.
Dorset-loving Tracy’s novel sold 5 million copies and became a blockbuster film with Oscar-winners Colin Firth and Scarlett Johannson.
‘Chevalier doesn’t put a foot wrong in this triumphant work … It is a beautifully written tale that mirrors the elegance of the painting that inspired it’ Wall Street Journal
‘A wonderful novel, mysterious, steeped in atmosphere, deeply revealing about the process of painting… truly magical’ Guardian
w14. Your top three mostvisited favourite websites (excluding social media!)?
• BBC News • Wolf & Badger (clothing) • National Gallery.
“The Enchanted April, published in 1922, is a witty and delightful depiction of what it is like to rediscover joy.”
15. Chip Shop Chips or Homebaked Cake?
Cake every time.
16. Favourite crisp flavour?
Just salt. Flavours are disgusting (That’s the American coming out in me).
17. The best biscuit for dunking?
Dunking is disgusting, says the American.
18. What in life is frankly a mystery to you?
That atoms are so small and the universe is so big. The scale always amazes and frightens me.
19. You have the power to pass one law tomorrow, uncontested. What would you do?
Everyone has to read a book a month set in a country that isn’t theirs, about people who are nothing like them.
Summer is finally with us and whether you’re braving the yoyo-ing of government foreign travel policy or enjoying a staycation, we have some wonderful handpicked summer reads to pass the time - and all of them are £2 off! Here are my personal top picks for a perfect hammock read this summer. Wayne
(just click the book covers to head to Winstone’s and buy - Ed)
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
Jean Swinney is a feature writer on a local paper, disappointed in love and - on the brink of forty - living a limited existence with her truculent mother. When a young Swiss woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud. But the more Jean investigates, the more her life becomes strangely intertwined with that of the Tilburys: Gretchen is now a friend, and her quirky and charming daughter Margaret a sort of surrogate child. And Jean doesn’t mean to fall in love with Gretchen’s husband, but Howard surprises her with his dry wit, his intelligence and his kindness, and she falls hard.
Devil and the Dark Water by Stuart Turton
Set in 1634, a boat leaves the East Indies with a detective duo on board. Although one is locked up and facing execution, their skills are very much needed when the voyage is beset by a terrible forewarning.
‘Wildly inventive, Turton’s tale defies definition as either historical fiction or crime novel, but provides all the pleasures of both genres and more’
