The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

In January 1946, London is starting to recover from the Second World War, and the writer Juliet Ashton is hunting for a subject for her next book. She finds one by accident. A man on the island of Guernsey, whom she has never met, writes to her after finding her name inside a book by Charles Lamb.

His letter leads Juliet into a correspondence with his friends, the members of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. The society began as an invented alibi, made up on the spot when its members were caught out after curfew by the Germans who occupied the island. The members include pig farmers and phrenologists, all of them devoted readers.

Through their letters Juliet learns what the islanders read, how they live, and what the recent occupation has done to them. Their stories draw her in, and she sails to Guernsey to meet them in person.

The novel is told entirely as a series of letters, which gives it an intimate, conversational feel. The tone is warm and funny, with the war's shadow behind the humour. It suits readers who like eccentric communities and who care about what books mean to the people who read them.