I have just finished reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer and what a thoroughly charming and entertaining read it was. It is a simple love story told in letters, set in post WW2 Guernsey, and even if events unfolded rather predictably it was nevertheless a compelling read. I kept on thinking that it was “old fashioned” as it reminded me of books I have read from around the time of the Second World War (and the main letter writer uses a Nancy Mitford-style of writing) so I wasn’t really surprised to hear that the author Mary Ann Shaffer was born in 1934. (And, sadly, died this year before she could see how successful her book turned out to be). So it has quite an authentic ring about it. We are also watching Foyles War on DSTV which ties in with the time very well – it was a different world in those days.
Anyway, I thought that the book was finely crafted and certainly made me want to find out a bit more about Guernsey. (I only know about the island because of our indigenous ‘Guernsey lily’ which grows profusely on the island and is the subject of many botanical myths about how it got there. )
by Mary Ann Shaffer and what a thoroughly charming and entertaining read it was. It is a simple love story told in letters, set in post WW2 Guernsey, and even if events unfolded rather predictably it was nevertheless a compelling read. I kept on thinking that it was “old fashioned” as it reminded me of books I have read from around the time of the Second World War (and the main letter writer uses a Nancy Mitford-style of writing) so I wasn’t really surprised to hear that the author Mary Ann Shaffer was born in 1934. (And, sadly, died this year before she could see how successful her book turned out to be). So it has quite an authentic ring about it. We are also watching Foyles War on DSTV which ties in with the time very well – it was a different world in those days.
Anyway, I thought that the book was finely crafted and certainly made me want to find out a bit more about Guernsey. (I only know about the island because of our indigenous ‘Guernsey lily’ which grows profusely on the island and is the subject of many botanical myths about how it got there. )
Read Isobel Montgomery’s review (The Guardian, Saturday 20 June 2009) online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/jun/20/guernsey-potato-shaffer-barrows.
The photo is of Annnie Barrow, the author's niece who helped her complete the book, and the author, Mary Ann Schaffer.
This comment on The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Schaffer (Terry's book no 2176) by Caroline
