Burning Bright

With her fine eye for historical detail, Tracy Chevalier writes a romantic, sweeping, and thoroughly engaging story about William Blake''s London. Sure to bring an age alive, "Burning Bright" promises to be one of the most-anticipated books of the year.

Tracy Chevalier (born October 1962 in Washington, DC) is a bestselling historical novelist. She was raised in Washington, D.C and graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Bethesda, Maryland. After receiving her B.A. in English from Oberlin College, she moved to England in 1984 where she worked several years as a reference book editor. Leaving her job in 1993, she began a year-long M.A in creative writing at the University of East Anglia. Her career began with the book The Virgin Blue but she became well known with her novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, a book based on the creation of the famous painting by Vermeer. The film based on the novel received three Academy Award nominations in 2004. Burning Bright, published in March 2007, concerns two children who become neighbors of William Blake in London in 1792. Her latest novel is Remarkable Creatures, based on the life of the English 19th-century fossil collector Mary Anning. She lives in London with her husband and son.