The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

This is not the cover I have... but look how pretty!

'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' is a rare book. Perhaps its feeling of rarity is underpinned by the fact that it is the first and last book by Mary Ann Shaffer who sadly passed away before the manuscript was completely finished. (It was completed by her niece, Annie Barrows, who is listed as the co-author of the book.) I read this book as one of those rare treasures- the kind that you can't wait to tear through but that you also can't bear to finish. When I turned over the last page I went back to the first without hesitation and read the book for a second time laughing, crying, and generally feeling that I was in the warming company of good friends. This is an epistolary novel which I thought at first would put me off as it is not my favourite format, but here it is treated perfectly and displays how, sensitively handled, there can be no better way for a writer to truly embody a cast of different characters. I believed in them all utterly. I was completely distraught when I had to leave them.
The book is the correspondence between Juliet Ashton (lovely, lovely character) and a peculiar mixture of individuals who make up a literary society in recently occupied Guernsey. It is extraordinary how cleverly the plot and characterisation are embedded in these letters. If you want an example of 'show don't tell' in writing then this is it. There is something elegant and understated about this quiet book which charmed me completely. When I had finished (for the second time) I pressed the book into Paul's hands with an urgent request to put down what he was reading right now, NOW, and read this because I needed to share it, I needed to talk about it. I think I needed him to make friends with it in that way we have when we press our favourite books onto loved ones. And he did. He loved it too, and we talked and laughed about characters like Isola and Sidney (best of all Isola and Sidney together) like we knew them. I then gave a copy to my mum and talked it up so much to her that I was afraid she would be disappointed. She wasn't, SHE loved it, and when she finished it she took it over to my Nan. When I saw my Nan a couple of weeks ago I asked her what she thought. No surprise, she loved it too, but what was a surprise was that she had had cousins living in occupied Guernsey, right there where the book is set, and she told us about their big house there and how there was a working well actually inside it, and all about her cousins, and what I'm trying to say is that this book was the gift that KEPT ON GIVING. I think it's so special when a book does this, when it brings people together and uncovers thoughts and stories that you might not otherwise hear. This is why my job is the best, why English degrees are the best, because what could be better than sitting and talking about the shared experience of a book read?  'The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society' is something that I have shared, that I have carried around with me ever since. Now, I hope you will read it, or share it, or talk about it, and I hope all this talking it up won't disappoint you.