Burning Bright - Tracy Chevalier

I first encountered Miss Chevalier last year when I swapped one of my books on RISI for THE LADY AND THE UNICORN. This was a surprisingly good read told from different viewpoints and fictiously retelling the story behind a well known piece of tapestry. There were those who compared it in reviews to THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING, an earlier novel, but, since I had not read this, I went in with no preconceptions. I enjoyed it so much in fact, that when I recently purchased the new Michael Marshall novel from Tesco in their 2 for £7 offer on books, I decided my second book should be this. Well, at least the new Michael Marshall was a good ...  Read the complete review

Tracy Chevalier is not a name I'm overly familiar with. I can only associate it with the film adaption of her book The Girl with a Pearl Earring. Personally I thought it was terrible but in this sense the blurb on the back cover did entice me a bit. Flames, funerals and circus feats. A nice combination during the 1700s. Leaving behind their country life the Kellaway family move to Georgian London. Knowing full well that things are going to be a lot different doesn't deter them. In a house owned by an uptight woman and having the Blakes as neighbours makes things a bit interesting for the Kellaways young teenagers, Maisie and Jem. Especially when within ...  Read the complete review

Tracey Chevalier is probably best known for writing 'Girl With a Pearl Earring' - the 2003 novel that took the UK by storm and was made into an award winning film starring Scarlett Johansson. 'Burning Bright' is her fifth novel, and does not quite succeed in finding the right mix of historical detail and human emotion to recreate the success of her previous novels. American by birth, Chevalier has an obvious love of English history and makes an excellent job of researching and bringing to life everyday events from the past, but on this occasion tries to spread herself to thinly, creating a story with just too many characters and too many dramas. Perhaps ...  Read the complete review

I was pleased to find this in a charity shop recently as I enjoyed all four of Tracy Chevaliers earlier novels. The Virgin Blue which was her debut novel, was my favourite, although I read and thoroughly enjoyed her best known work, Girl With a Pearl Earring first. Her next two novels I enjoyed, but not quite as much as the earlier two and I didn't know of the existence of this one, which came out in 2007, until a couple of weeks ago. I did raise a cynical eyebrow when I read that William Blake was a character in the story, as I thought it smacked of trying to repeat a bestselling formula, but as I was already a fan of her work I brushed the feeling aside - ...  Read the complete review