Review: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows (2008)

As someone who loves receiving handwritten letters in the post (something which, I might add, happens all too infrequently), Mary Ann Shaffer's epistolary novel about a book club whose members take up correspondence with London writer Juliet Ashton in 1946 had an immediate appeal. I admit to being put off by the lenghty title, but this book won me over almost instantly with its tongue in cheek humour, its cast of entertaining characters, and its big heart.

 Juliet Ashton is a newspaper columnist whose humourous wartime reflections have made her something of success, but whose own wartime experiences have left her world-weary and disillusioned.  Out of the blue she receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, from Guernsey, who has acquired a book which used to belong her and who writes in the hope that she could send him more works by the same author. So begins Juliet's correspondence with the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - a group created as a spur of the moment alibi when the founding members were caught outside after curfew by their German occupiers.

I couldn't help but be charmed by Shaffer's cast of characters, particularly eccentric Isola with her parrot and her potions. If I could make any criticism, it would be that the characters are almost too likeable, too heartwarming. But perhaps that's what this book is really about: it celebrates friendship above all else and I enjoyed reading as Juliet began again to believe in goodness, and kindness, and life. If this book was too much of anything, I didn't really mind. I smiled the whole way through and felt a whole lot better at the end.


Big thanks to Catherine for the recommendation!