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International bestselling author Tracy Chevalier talks about her new novel, The Last Runaway, published on the eve of the festival. It follows Quaker Honor Bright, who sets sail from Bristol with her sister for the forests and cornfields of 1850s Ohio. There, in the last days of slavery, she faces a dilemma. Should she hide the runaways hunted by ruthless men? And does the Quaker community opposed to slavery have the courage to help her defy the law?

US-born Chevalier has lived in London since 1984. She has written six previous novels, including Girl with a Pearl Earring, which sold four million copies worldwide and was made into a film starring Colin Firth and Scarlett Johansson. Her works are known for their rich evocation of the past. Here she talks to Sunday Times chief fiction reviewer Peter Kemp.