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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society | 
 enlarge | Authors: Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £6.57
You Save: £6.42 (49%)
New (18) Used (3) Collectible (2) from £5.15
Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 414
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0747589194
EAN: 9780747589198
ASIN: 0747589194
Publication Date: August 4, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Fascinating insight into WW2 Guernsey November 20, 2008
Mark Meynell (London, UK)
An enthralling and fun epistolary book - after perhaps a slow start, it was gripping and fascinating - kept the pages turning but maintained a real sense of charm. Historical novels as they should be.
 The Most Heart-Warming New Fiction Book I've Read in 2008 November 7, 2008
Donald Mitchell (Boston)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society will appeal to anyone who loves to read about courage, integrity, kindness, love, literature, and happiness. Written as a series of letters among the characters, the book will also charm those who enjoy getting to know people through what they reveal in writing.
It would be easy to spoil this gem so I'll reveal as little as possible. In the first letter dated 8th January 1946, author Juliet Ashton writes to her publisher, Sidney Stark, about the results of her book tour for Izzy Bickerstaff goes to War and her new book, English Foibles. It turns out she's tired of being a light-hearted journalist. From there, we trail Juliet as she eventually finds her subject through an unexpected letter from a Guernsey farmer, Dawsey Adams, who owns an old book of hers, Selected Essays of Elia by Charles Lamb, which had her name and former address written inside the front cover. Like Alice when she went down the rabbit hole, that letter opens up a whole new world . . . and set of experiences . . . relating to the English Channel island of Guernsey which was occupied by German forces during World War II.
Unlike literary letters (say of Virginia Woolf), these letters are more often chatty and informative than witty. But each letter opens the door into the hearts and minds of the characters in deeper ways than can occur in the normal narrative of a novel. You will feel like you are solving a mystery at times. You'll even get to know characters quite well that don't write any letters.
I found myself torn between wanting to race to the end . . . and wanting to savor the pleasure of each letter. The latter instinct prevailed.
The letters are short, and you could read most of them in two minutes or less. Even if you are frequently interrupted, you will get right back into the story.
There's a clear possibility of a sequel here. I look forward to it!
I think the most appropriate word is 'Charming'! October 31, 2008
Snapdragon (London)
Julia Ashton is a spirited and single-minded woman living in London in 1946. She is a writer struggling to find the subject matter for her next book, when she receives a letter unexpectedly; the letter is from Dawsey Adams. Dawsey lives on Guernsey and has what was Julia's copy of Charles Lamb's letters. As it is difficult to find books on the island, he asks Julia if she could send him more of Charles Lamb's works and they begin a correspondence. As Julia finds out more about Dawsey and his membership of `The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' and how it came into being, she begins to write to other members of the group and build a picture of what it was like on Guernsey during the German Occupation.
I was a little hesitant about reading this book, as I usually avoid reading about the war. Having said that as the story is told through letters, it is remarkably easy to read and the characters are drawn beautifully. I was particularly taken with Isola Pribby, who believes that;
`Reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.'!
I would heartily recommend this book; a light read that still has depth. Brilliant!
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society October 22, 2008
M. Young (London)
This is a lovely little book made up of a series of letters between Juliet, (the central character) and members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, based in Guernsey, who have experienced the island's Occupation by the Germans. Particularly interesting if, like me, you are from the Channel Islands but have never really been told much about this time. This book is perfect for a weekend or holiday read. The only thing I would say is that there are quite a few characters mentioned and it can be easy to forget who is who if you haven't picked up the book for a few days. I only wish I had read this book over a few days or even a few hours and not over 3 weeks, as I think I would have enjoyed it more.
 A Guernseyman's perspective October 5, 2008
Mr. Mischief (Guernsey)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
Coming from Guernsey, and having family who lived through the Occupation, I thought that this book might give me a different perspective on what life was like after the Occupation had ended, a period that is often overlooked even here on the island. Styled as a series of letters between a London-based author, her friends and a group of Guernsey book aficionados, I was afraid that I might find it hard to engage with any of the characters emotionally as in my experience first-person letters can't convey the same sense of emotion that can be gained by well-worded, third-person prose. Fortunately, the letters are written sometimes seriously, sometimes comically, and this helped me to form some attachment to the characters, perhaps not to the extent I would have liked but enough to keep me interested, though not entirely engrossed, in the story.
As a novel, this book is definitely one for people who like their literature simple and straightforward, to a point that it could easily be a year 12 reading project. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, with so many authors these days throwing big words around as if to marvel their audience at how clever and talented they must be to be using so many big words with such abandon. `The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' has no such airs, being easy on both the head and the eyes with its easy manner and gentle vocabulary, and makes for both a light and enjoyable read.
However I have two fairly strong criticisms of the book, the first being that the author seems to have got all of her information from only one or two sources and doesn't appear to have actually been to the island or spoken to anyone who lived through the Occupation. The names of Guernsey characters (and, to an extent, locations) aren't quite `right'; on more than one occasion I cringed when reading an improperly spelled surname or an address I know has never existed. Of course these are things the majority of readers would never pick up on, and certainly wouldn't affect their enjoyment of the book, but if you want an accurate and thoroughly researched Occupation novel, my advice would be to look elsewhere.
My other criticism is that the majority of the letters are either from the author to her England-based friends or vice versa, with only the minority being written by members of the eponymous Society. As such, on only a few occasions do these members get to recount events from the Occupation and to talk about what life was like here under German rule; a large portion of the book is taken up with fairly superfluous chats between the author and her English chums about literature, love and any other old tat that comes to mind. If you were to remove from the book all references to Guernsey, the Occupation and the war generally, I sincerely doubt that you'd lose more than 25% of it at the most.
It could be argued that this book was never intended as anything other than an easy read for a wet Saturday afternoon and if that's true then it truly is mission accomplished. But having had Occupation stories rammed down my throat from an early age, I found the whole thing to be little more than a fairly cheap cash-in on a relatively under-served part of British history. There's no denying that some of the stories that are recounted do make you feel for the characters and their plight, but even with these this book merely skims the surface and gives very little idea of how bad things truly got.
If you're after nothing more than a book before bedtime, then you can pick this one safe in the knowledge that it'll be money well spent. However, if it's a book on the Occupation that you're after then there are much better ones (both novels and reference works) out there and I would recommend seeking these out instead. They might not be as easy on the palate, but I guarantee they'll give you a much better idea of what life was really like in Guernsey, both during and after the war. And to be quite honest, I find it more than a little disappointing that a whole swathe of readers will assume that the book accurately portrays Guernsey folk and life during the Occupation when all it does it take a bunch of people who could be from any town in the U.K. and adds a few references to Guernsey locations.
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