Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society Book

The German Occupation Lasted Five Years

What a morning that must have been! The crowds were lined up along St Peter Ports harbour. Silent, absolutely silent: masses of people looking at the Royal Navy ships sitting just outside the harbour. Then when the Tommies landed and marched ashore, all hell broke loose. Hugs, kisses, crying, shouting.

Guernsey was finally liberated on 9th May 1945, five years after the occupation began.

To quote Winston Churchill, our dear Channel Islands are also to be freed today, which seems a little wry given that the Islands were basically abandoned and deemed of little strategic importance before the occupation.

Today, 9 May is deemed a national holiday on the Channel Islands and huge crowds gather at St Peters Port every year to celebrate!

If you feel inspired to visit the island of Guernsey now, you can find out more from the Visit Guernsey website. Theyve also created a fantastic movie tie in website, which explains the true story behind The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society in even greater detail, including pictures, videos and clippings.

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Saturday 2nd of June 2018

What a great post! I’ve popped the book on my reading list.

Publishers Weeklysept 29 2008

Shaffer’s debut novel, written with her niece Barrow, is an original account of one writer’s relationship with a member of a unique book club formed as an alibi to protect its members from arrest at the hands of the Nazis during WWII. With a small cast of gifted narrators including Paul Boehmer, Susan Duerdan, John Lee, Rosalyn Landor and the enjoyable Juliet Mills, this production is first-class from top to bottom. The narrators’ British dialects, each quite regional and equally as different as they are ear-pleasing, serve the story well and allow Shaffer’s words to leap from the page into the hearts and minds of her listeners. The final result is an almost theatrical experience with a plethora of enthusiastic performances. A Dial Press hardcover .

What About Guernsey In The Present Day

Although a fictional story, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society sheds light on the very real events in Guernsey during WWII.

Today you can visit Guernsey and take The Guernsey Literary Potato Peel Pie Tour to find out more about the genuine locations and events that inspired the film.

There are also plenty of historical landmarks for anyone interested in that period of the islands history, including the German Occupation Museum, the Military Underground Hospital and the Naval Signals HQ.

Our beautiful island is a popular destination for visitors all year round, combining historic intrigue with stunning natural beauty and wonderful food and drink.

If youd like to learn more about the real setting of the best-selling novel and the inspiration behind the film, begin planning your visit to Guernsey today!

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Age Structure And Median Age

Children younger than 14 constituted 20.6% of the population in Outer London in 2018, and 18% in Inner London. The 1524 age group was 11.1% in Outer and 10.2% in Inner London, those aged 2544 years 30.6% in Outer London and 39.7% in Inner London, those aged 4564 years 24% and 20.7% in Outer and Inner London respectively. Those aged 65 and over are 13.6% in Outer London, but only 9.3% in Inner London.

The of London in 2018 was 36.5, which was younger than the UK median of 40.3.

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Islanders Sheltered Escaped Slave Workers

Elizabeth, as feckless as ever, committed a criminal act expressly forbidden by the German Occupying Force she helped shelter and feed an escaped prisoner of the German Army. She was arrested and sentenced to prison on the Continent.

Despite the severe cost if discovered, numerous islanders tried to help the slave workers by sheltering them in secret, just like Elizabeth in The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

• STUDIOCANAL S.A.S.
• STUDIOCANAL S.A.S.

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Almost Half Of Guernseys Population Was Evacuated

Of all the sights I saw the day they left, there is one picture I cant get out of my mind. Two little girls, all dressed up i pink dresses, stiff petticoats, shiny shoes as if they were off to a party. How cold they must have been crossing the Channel.

There was a lot of confusion as to whether the Channel Islands would be evacuated so it was a panicked affair. On 19 June 1940, parents were told to register their children to be evacuated and some were sent away the very next morning.

In the end, four-fifths of the children and almost half of Guernseys population were evacuated before the occupation. In actual fact, evacuation boats were still leaving the island when the German Air Force began their invasion!

Talk To Your Kids About

• Families can talk about how movies can inform audiences as well as entertain them. Did you know about the German occupation of the Island of Guernsey? Were you surprised to learn that a British island had been invaded? Where would you go to find out more about these World War II events?

• Juliet was tempted to publish the story of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. How did the members of the society feel about public exposure? Did you agree with her final decision? Why or why not? Given todays climate of tell-all books and social media, what is your attitude about privacy? When do you think the right to know supersedes privacy?

• Find Guernsey Island on a map. Does the islands proximity to France help you understand how and why the Germans invaded it? Since most of us cannot travel to such places, movies are a source of what is termed armchair travel. What special geographical locations have you visited in the movie theater?

• On DVD or streaming: August 10, 2018
• Cast:

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The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society By Mary Ann Shaffer And Annie Barrows

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is, essentially, a love story. Its a traditional love story to be sure, but more importantly, it is the story of a small island community composed of very disparate people who came together during the German occupation of World War II to protect, comfort, and in some cases, save one another. Therein lays the true story of love.The novel is told through a series of letters sent between January and September 1946. In these letters and nine short months, a whole world of tragedy, deprivation, evil, camaraderie, humor, and love is revealed.

In his lust for land acquisition, Hitler sends troops onto the Guernsey Channel Islands in 1940 to hold them for the homeland until the war is over. It is during this, a five-year occupation, that we learn the story of Elizabeth, who, though missing from the island, is nevertheless central to the story.It is Elizabeth who saves a group of her friends from serious punishment for a curfew violation by lying to the guards and telling them they are just leaving from a book club discussion.A true book club is then born, becoming the center of community for the people living in Guernsey and who are suffering the starvation and humiliation of the occupation. It is this society that keeps sanity and hope alive. And, it is to this society that the protagonist, Juliet Ashton, is introduced serendipitously.

Random House ISBN 978-0-3853-4100-4 $14.

Buy The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society: Our Book Club Pick

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The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society By Mary Ann Shaffer

Juliet Ashton is a successful writer, author of the popular Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War column in the Spectator. But now it is 1946 and the war is over, and Juliet wants to put Izzy behind her and write a serious book in her own name. The problem is she has no idea what to write about. Then she receives a letter from a pig farmer on the Channel Island of Guernsey, a man called Dawsey Adams, who has acquired a second hand book by Charles Lamb that has Juliet’s name and address written inside the front cover. Dawsey is writing to Juliet because he loved the book it helped keep his spirits up during the German Occupation and he wonders if she knows of any other books by Charles Lamb. There are no bookshops left on the island, you see, since the Germans left. In passing, Dawsey mentions in his letter the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which came into being because of a roast pig they had to keep secret from the Germans, and Juliet is intrigued. Why, she writes back, did a roast-pig dinner have to be kept a secret? How could a pig cause them to establish a literary society? And, most pressing of all, what is a potato peel pie?

Highly recommended.

How The Online Book Club Discussion Works

At the end of the second month, well discuss the book on Facebook and Goodreads, with a bit of discussion also available on Instagram. Feel free to join us, as wed love to hear your thoughts on the book.

You can also download our free printable discussion questions and discuss the book on your own time with your friends or family. These discussion questions will post on The Silver Petticoat Review for your personal use!

After announcing a new book club pick, find a copy buy it, borrow it, or even check it out from the library, and start reading! Youll have about two months to finish.

We give a longer reading time because some classic books are long and readers want more time!

You can follow our site, The Silver Petticoat Review , for up-to-date information on the book club. You may also connect with us via our social media sites using the hashtag #TheSilverPetticoatBookClub.

Read more about The Silver Petticoat Book Club HERE.

Will you read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie with us for the book club these next two months? Have you read this famous book before? Let us know in the comments below!

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Book Review: The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society By Mary Ann Shaffer And Annie Barrows

Title:The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Genre: Literary Fiction, Historical, Second World War

Publisher: Dial Press / BloomsburyPublication Date: First published in 2008Hardcover/Paperback: 274 pages

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friendsand what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Societyborn as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their islandboasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Stand alone or series: Stand alone novel

How did I get this book: Borrowed from a friend

Why did I read this book: A friend of mine, knowing I love epistolary novels and stories in a Second World War setting, put this book in my hands after she read it and loved it. It was sitting on my nightstand when Elizabeth Wein, author of the fabulous Code Name Verity mentioned it as one of her influences and that was what made me finally read it.

Review:

As I was thinking about how to review the book, I thought about this recent video by Ron Charlesin which he makes fun of stereotypical, formulaic words and phrases reviewers use in their reviews. But do you knowsometimes, these things ARE true and they WORK. So here it goes:

Notable Quotes/Parts:

Rating: 9 Damn Near Perfect

Buy the Book:

The Jane Austen Society By Natalie Jenner

This is set in Chawton in the 1940s. When Jane Austens home is threatened, a group of readers whose only commonality seems to be their love of her books come together to attempt to preserve it. As they work to form The Jane Austen Society, they discover that Austens plots may hit closer to home than they thought and that they may have more in common than it appears.

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Join The Silver Petticoat Book Club

If this is your first time hearing about The Silver Petticoat Book Club, wed love for you to join us! Were a group who love to read and discuss great books together.

The Silver Petticoat Book Club focuses on sweet, smart, or Austenesque books with love stories. We select a book once every two months to discuss, alternating book club choices between modern and classic books.

For this month, weve selected a newer book to read. So, for July 2022, we will choose a classic book.

Where Did They Film The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

Thats right, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was not actually shot in Guernsey it was mostly filmed in Bude, a picturesque seaside town in north Cornwall, England. We were very, very keen to go there, but Guernsey has changed a great deal, explained Newell.

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Book Review: The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society

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Despite being set just after the war, I found The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows to be a completely heart warming story. Covering dark topics in places, the novel is an uplifting tale about the strength of its characters who continue to support one another and their passion for books throughout the good and bad times of their lives.

A unique take on the typical war story, the story is told entirely through letters which makes it a quick and easy read, despite the overarching topic it tackles. In fact, many of the characters bring a humorous take to the book, helping to remind the reader of the well-rounded nature of humans, even during tough times.