Remarkable author

When your teacher assigns you a book at school there are two things you wouldn’t expect: the first is that you would really enjoy the novel and the second is that you would have the chance to meet the author. Well, in this case both happened!

This summer we had to read “Remarkable Creatures” by Tracy Chevalier. She is an amazing author that writes historical novels and one of her most famous ones is the “Girl with a Pearl Earring. Like the writer, the book we read was really remarkable: It dealt with friendship and love, but in particular it showed the difficulties that women had in the early nineteenth century, especially in the scientific field, which was dominated by men.

The meeting with Tracy Chevalier was enlightening, we asked her many questions about her books, her life and her work as a writer. The things that struck me the most were, first of all the passion that she puts in her novels, indeed she showed us some fossils that she found during her trip to Lyme Regis to collect information for her story. Secondly I was impressed by her sincerity, in particular when she told us that writing is not as easy as It seems and often she has to force herself to finish at book.

Overall, it was a really fascinating experience.Tracy Chevalier was patient, friendly and she always answered clearly to our questions. She also amused us with some jokes, but what’s really important is that she transmits the dedication she puts into her work.

Gaia Bianchi

Some MORE extracts…

FROM A MESSAGE TO AN EXPERIENCE 

Have you ever thought about sending a message to a famous person? Well, it is what our English teacher did and the result was a meeting with the famous American author, Tracy Chevalier.

Everything started because my classmates and I had to read her novel, Remarkable Creatures, this summer. Surprisingly, the whole class turned out to enjoy the story and our English teacher decided to inform the author. Through a few messages she managed to organize a meeting online with her.

Clizia Fontana

Let’s go back for a second to last summer, when my classmates and I had to read the second novel mentioned above, Remarkable Creatures. It is the story of Elizabeth and Mary, two girls of the most different social status and age, who established a friendship based on finding specimens in the cliffs of Lyme Regis. Due to this reading, our teacher decided to contact and let us meet Tracy Chevalier, and… well, she accepted! Now, you are surely curious to know how it went, aren’t you?

To begin with, we were all excited to interview Chevalier, so, as soon as she appeared on the screen of our classroom’s interactive board, we started asking a multitude of questions, mostly about her novel. She was very gracious with us, responding to all the requests in detail and unveiling to us some secrets about her writing technique: for instance, she always holds in one of her hands a piece of fossil she found herself, and she considers it as a lucky charm. That’s the secret for her wonderful writing! 

Aurora Bottà

To begin with, she spoke about her passion for writing, which she has had since she was a child, when she spent every day reading books in her bedroom and which led her to write her great masterpieces.

In addition to this, she explained that to write the story she had to try on her skin the work of fossil hunters. She showed us the fossils she found during her experience as a fossil hunter in Lyme Regis, where the story is set. Moreover, she also mentioned the great research of archival documentation that she has carried out to describe the story of the two protagonists: Elizabeth and Mary.

All in all, it was a pleasant and enjoyable conference and it was a great honor to have met such an incredible writer. Tracy Chevalier was really kind to us and answered all our questions very clearly. At the end of the meeting we even asked her to come and visit us in Lovere, since she is currently writing a book set in Italy.

Sabrina Bonalda

The first thing to consider was her kindness and her willingness to dedicate time to us, indeed she answered our questions and curiosities showing great interest and she found some of them quite original and peculiar. She appreciated our participation in the lesson, as well as our involvement and passion for her historical novel. 

In addition to that, one thing she said that particularly stuck out to me was about her ability to overcome the “writer’s block” easily with new ideas that sometimes offer her hints to write other works. To my mind it is an admirable skill, because I find it quite difficult to write original, interesting and different stories at the same time. 

Overall I found this meeting pleasant and inspiring, I would like to read more of her works and get passionate about other stories. It was by far one of the nicest meetings made at school in these years.  

Laura Bonomi

Anyway, back to my experience, last Monday Mrs Chevalier made herself available directly from her London house to answer some of the questions that my classmates and I had about her life and work. Needless to say, the meeting was exciting!! She has revealed to us all her techniques, from the way in which the idea to write a new novel is born until the moment when the book is published in bookstores. Personally, I had never had the opportunity to speak face to face, or maybe I should say screen to screen, with such an interesting writer, and I have to admit that it was truly a moment that I will never, ever forget.

It’s easy for me to think that many of you who are reading would like to have been in my place, but if this is really the case, I suggest you to write to Mrs Chevalier on her Instagram profile, she is very active on social media and, most of the time, replies to many of her readers without problems. Let me know if you will be among the lucky ones!

Ludovica Macario

ALL IT TOOK WAS A MESSAGE!

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All in all, thanks to technology, we were able to experience the meeting with a foreign famous person and we also had the occasion to challenge ourselves with the language. What we learn from this situation is that if you want to write a message, do soit, you will never know what comes next!

Michelle Perdersoli