Tracy Chevalier writes historical fiction that often begins with an artwork, craft or documented historical figure and imagines the lives around the surviving record. Girl with a Pearl Earring places a fictional maid named Griet in the Delft household of painter Johannes Vermeer and builds a story around the creation of the famous portrait. The Lady and the Unicorn follows the making of the medieval tapestries through artists, patrons and craftspeople, while Remarkable Creatures centres on fossil hunter Mary Anning and collector Elizabeth Philpot on the Dorset coast. Chevalier's novels are measured and character-led, with practical details of painting, weaving, fossil collecting or domestic work helping establish the period. Girl with a Pearl Earring is the clearest starting point for art-centred historical fiction, while Remarkable Creatures shows the same interest in reconstructing women's work around a surviving historical record. Read more Less
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