Thank goodness Elaine suggested this book to me, it was just delightful - as is the feeling that I can afford to just read book after book on my holiday. There actually is a second author - Annie Barrows, but after reading the afterward, I am going to say this is mainly Mary Ann Shaffer's book, though her niece helped her finish editing it, when health prevented her from doing this herself.
World War II or it's aftermath seems to be a current theme lately - Lacuna (large part of it), Day After Night, even Japan, and then there were those wonderful Maisie Dobbs books by Winspear (OK, that was WWI).
Did you know that the Germans invaded part of England - the Channel Islands, or at least Guernsey (the other bigger island being Jersey) - 8 miles in diameter? I didn't, I don't think I really knew where those islands were or who they belonged to. Well, they belong to England, though seem to have a fairly independent history, and are located closer to France than England. They were invaded by the German army, and though they did not suffer bombings and battles, they were starving much of the time, they felt they had to send most of their children to England, and those that defied the Germans were arrested, some sent to camps in Germany, some executed. Those are the bare facts.
Though covering a difficult historical time, it is made delightful by the author and it's main character Juliet. Juliet is a writer in London, who has been writing regular columns and has just published those columns in a book Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War. She has somehow made it easier for people to endure the war with her sunny disposition and light-hearted touch. She is contacted by Dawsey from Guernsey, because he has one of her former books and wants to read more from the author Charles Lamb. This begins a correspondence between Juliet and Dawsey and other people from Guernsey and draws her into their experience during the war.
I must point out that the whole book is in the form of letters throughout 1946. Many of them are letters from Juliet to her publisher and good friend Sidney or to her best friend, Sidney's sister, Sophie, or her answers to the people in Guernsey. But many are to her from all these people, including telegrams. A very interesting way of telling a story, and I understand the author was a great story teller.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was formed when a few of the islanders were caught after curfew (after eating an illegally kept pig) and one of them conjured up a literary society meeting as an excuse. To make the excuse stick, they actually formed a literary society, borrowed books from each other, bought out the local bookstore, and gathered regularly to share what they had read, as well as support each other in getting through the very difficult times. The Potato Peel Pie indicates the shared meals--when they had no flour, they used potato peels as the pie crust. Each person has a unique tale to tell, and they all tell their stories to Juliet. They communally raise a child, when her mother is arrested and sent to Germany. They all encourage Juliet to visit them and take her warmly into their fold. I won't say more - I just feel so warm inside, like they have welcomed me too - and I gather that is the affect this book has been having on readers around the world.
I just want to quote one paragraph, which just hit home from my short-lived experience as a book store owner:
"I love seeing the bookshops and meeting the booksellers--booksellers really are a special breed. No noe in their right mind would take up clerking in a bookstore for the salary, and no one in his right mind would want to own one--the martin of profit is too small. So, it has to be a love of readers and reading that makes them do it--along with first dibs on the new books." (pg. 15)
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