This is a great book which tells the story of the Society through a series of letters and telegrams to and from author Juliet Ashton. The fact that the whole story is told through letters doesn’t detract from the power of the subject matter.
The Germans occupied Guernsey and the other Channel Islands because the British foolishly left them undefended. They confiscated the locals livestock and forced them to live under harsh and constantly changing regulations and curfews. The society was formed under false pretences but became an escape for the islanders who had no news from the outside world for the last five years of the war. Juliet in a London still reeling from the might of the Luftwaffe gets a glimpse of the Society and wants to know more and the more she learns about the Islanders in general and Elizabeth McKenna in particular the more she knows she’s got to visit Guernsey.
The story is told in letters, and telegrams to and from Juliet, her publisher and friend Sidney Stark, his sister Sophie, Dawsey Adams, Amelia, Isola, Eben and Eli and many others.
I laughed, was suitable affronted and yes in some places I cried. A brilliant book and it’s about time someone shone a spot light on this little-known part of history. It had some interesting things to say about booksellers (Juliet and Sophie worked in a bookstore when they first moved to London) and the complicated relationships between the islanders and the Germans. And to say the path of true love doesn’t run smooth for one character would be an understatement!
I was very sad to learn that Mary Ann Shaffer one of the authors died before the book’s publication.
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