Of letters, literature and life
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
By Mary Ann Shafer and Annie Barrows
The Dial Press/Random House,
274 pages
MANILA, Philippines – At first glance, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society may strike you as an odd title for a book. But don’t let that keep you from this warm-hearted and thoroughly enjoyable read. The book has gained quite a following — on the New York Times best-seller list for over 30 weeks, and with editions in 10 countries. It is, at heart, an endearing tale about deep friendships and human ties formed from of an exchange of letters and a love of reading. That may not be unusual, but in the aftermath of war, the bonds of friendship meant everything to those who were left to rebuild their lives, and those who had stories to share. It is from such stories that history comes alive.
The story begins in London in 1946. As World War II draws to a close, people are left to cope with the destruction all around them. Juliet Ashton, the central character, writes a regular column titled, “Iggy Bickerstaff Goes to War” — a series of lighthearted articles meant to lift people’s spirits during the war. The column is so widely read that publisher Sidney Stark (also Juliet’s childhood friend) decides to publish the writings in a single volume. As the story opens, Juliet is on a tour to promote her book around England — thrilled with the success of the book but searching for the subject of her next book.
One day, she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a pig farmer from the Island of Guernsey on the English Channel. He came across her name and address on the inside cover of a secondhand book written by Charles Lamb. As there were no bookshops left in Guernsey after the war, he inquired where he might find more of the author’s writings. Charles Lamb’s book made reference to a roast pig. Dawsey explained that he was a member of a local book club known as “ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society,” which came into being because of a roast pig that had to be kept secret from the German soldiers. So starts a series of letters between Dawsey and Juliet as they share an admiration for Charles Lamb’s writings.
Juliet would learn that the book club — formed at first as an alibi for violating a curfew imposed by German soldiers — soon turned a few simple townspeople into lovers of literature. Amelia Maugery, a member of the book club, described how the Society meetings progressed. She writes, “We read books, talked books, argued over books, and became dearer and dearer to one another. Other Islanders asked to join us, and our evenings together became bright, lively times — we could almost forget, now and then, the darkness outside.” Reading sustained them through the hardships of war and deepened their appreciation of life. As Juliet and the Society members exchange letters, each character tells a compelling story of their wartime experiences, each is endearing in their own way — full of humor and warmth, and deeply attached to their land in a way that city-dwellers can never be. You later learn that the people of Guernsey each tended to their own vegetable garden that became their source of sustenance during the German occupation.
As chance would have it, Juliet is asked by the Times to write an article for its literary supplement on the value of reading. It occurs to her that a feature on the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society would make an ideal subject. As she makes her intentions known to the Society, a vigorous exchange of letters ensues, and she is drawn into the lives of her subjects — into the land they cherish, the values they hold dear, and the secrets they couldn’t tell a living soul. They relate vivid accounts of wartime cruelty and abuse, of children taken from their parents to be brought to safety when the occupation started, of a German soldier’s kindness and a woman’s acts of courage that touched so many lives. Soon, Juliet is convinced that this could become the subject of a new book.
As the second half of the book begins, Juliet prepares to visit Guernsey to further her research on the island’s history, and to meet the people she has come to know well through an exchange of letters. Predictably, Juliet falls in love with the natural beauty of the island and its dreamlike seascape. She meets Dawsey Adams, the gentle and quiet farmer, Amelia Maugery, whose spirits were lifted by The Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens, and Will Thisbee, who introduced the potato peel pie to the Society meetings. The potato peel pie was a simple concoction of mashed potatoes sweetened with strained beets under a crust of potato peelings. It became a favorite at the meetings and thus was added to the Society’s name. There, too, was Isola Pribby, who sold preserves, vegetables and elixirs in the local market and was fond of the works of the Brontë sisters. Isola liked “stories of passionate encounters” and came to realize that “reading good books ruins you for enjoying bad books.” There was Eben Ramsey, the fisherman who took comfort in the words of William Shakespeare when the occupation of Guernsey began. His grandson Eli was evacuated to England when he was seven and did not return to Guernsey until he was 12. There was John Booker, the founding member of the Society, who read one book over and over again — The Letters of Seneca: Translated from Latin in One Volume. Of Seneca, John writes: “ His words travel well to all men in all times.”
As Juliet settles in, she discovers that Elizabeth McKenna is the true heroine of this story. It was Elizabeth who first thought of the book club as a ruse to prevent the Germans from arresting a group of friends for violating the curfew and dining on a roast pig. Elizabeth personifies goodness and courage in the worst of times — she comforts children who leave occupied Guernsey for England, shelters and feeds conscripted laborers for which she is sent to a concentration camp. While there, she defends a woman from abuse for which she is punished by death. Elizabeth is the one character that binds all the rest together — a symbol of their suffering and their pride.
The bright spot is that she leaves behind a delightful love child with a humane German soldier, Christian Hellman. The members of the book club each take turns taking care of Kit. But when Juliet arrives, Kit is left to her care. Slowly, Juliet eases into the flow of life in Guernsey and relishes its rituals — the children’s games she plays each day with Kit, the afternoon teas and gatherings with new friends. Slowly, too, she discovers that a humble farmer like Dawsey Adams may just be her ideal lifetime partner — portrayed here as a good, solid character with depth and a wide range of interests. Small wonder that by the end of this tale, Juliet chooses to make Guernsey her home and her new reality.
This novel is full of delightful characters — candid and witty folk who speak straight from the heart. It idealizes the virtues of a pastoral setting and a simple life. As the war comes to an end, the one thing that makes sense amid all the devastation and loss of life, are the bonds of friendship that transcend the pain and suffering. As this novel unfolds as a series of letters, the letter writing underscores these themes for the reader and tells the story.
The author Mary Ann Shafer explains in an Acknowledgements page that she stumbled upon the subject of the book by chance while learning of the German occupation of the Channel Islands. For health reasons, Shafer could not complete the book so her niece, Annie Barrows, set out to finish the book. Her message is simply this: that we honor the courage of those who fought for the lives of others in times of war; that we seek refuge and comfort in the arts; that art, in any form, reaches across borders and makes life all the more meaningful.
At its best, a work of fiction takes us away from our reality and yet leads us back to it. While this novel is set in post-war England in the 1940s, it reminds us of a time-honored truth: that books and reading make the most constant of friends and allies in war and peace, and for all times.
