This book was first published in 2008 and I’ve got a feeling that it might have been a Richard and Judy choice because it has been very popular, in fact the blurb on the cover says it is an international best seller, but at last I got around to reading it.
The crazy title really attracted me but I didn’t have a clue what the book was about, as soon as I discovered that it is about the German occupation of Guernsey during World War 2 I had to buy it.
It’s an epistolary book and I’m usually not all that keen on them but this one is so well written and the various characters who are writing the letters are all so well defined that I didn’t have a problem with it.
In fact it’s a really great read.
Juliet Ashton using the name of Izzy Bickerstaffe was a journalist and author based in London during the war and helping to keep up morale with jocular stories. In January 1946, worn down by the war, she is looking for another outlet for her talent and not having much joy with her new project when out of the blue she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a Guernsey resident and a member of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
Their correspondence about the war days continues and letters from other members of the society culminate in Juliet visiting Guernsey to meet them all, and the whole thing turns into a very entertaining book which is funny and sad as well as informative.
If you are interested in learning about the German occupation of the Channel Islands you can read more about it here.
