Image courtesy of fishpond.com.au

Image courtesy of fishpond.com.au

Rating? 4/5 stars
Genre? Fiction
Sex? Only the barest hint

“January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’d never met, a native of Guernsey, the British island, once occupied by the Nazis. He’d come across her name on the flyleaf of a secondhand volume by Charles Lamb. Perhaps she could tell him where he might find more books by this author.

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, she is drawn into the world of this man and his friends, all members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society, a unique book club formed in a unique spur-of-the-moment way: as an alibi to protect its members from arrest by the Germans…”

My Mum read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for her book club and loved it so much she bought me a copy.

I was a little hesitant to open its front cover because it didn’t really appeal – the cover simply features a dark silhouette on a foreshore. And let’s face it, the name of the book is also rather unwieldy.

But I was pleasantly surprised.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is an old fashioned read…for all the right reasons.

Firstly, it’s well written and tells its story using letters and journal entries. I know quite a few people lament the loss of the art of letter writing  and this novel proves their point.

Set in 1946 in post-war England and Guernsey (one of the Channel Islands), the book introduces the main character, Juliet Ashton, through letters to her publisher and friends.

An unexpected request from a Guernsey resident sparks Juliet’s interest in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society and its’ members. And soon we are introduced to their lives through letters too as we learn about their feelings, losses, loves and triumphs during the Nazi occupation.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society took me on a gentle and genteel journey as I was slowly but surely absorbed into the flow of this story.

I usually avoid books that deal with war because I find the painful imagery they invoke stays with me long after I’ve read the last page.

But this one doesn’t delve too much into the viciousness of war.  Instead it focuses on the everyday wartime hardships of the Guernsey residents and their occupiers.

And ultimately it describes how The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society brings together a disparate group of residents and creates friendships that last long after the war is over.

This book gave me a lovely excuse to sit back, immerse myself in another world and gently while away a few summer hours.

But I think I’ll leave the recipe for potato peel pie off my personal menu.