Guernsey is a rocky, salt-sprayed island sitting in the English Channel. Most people only know it because of a book with a ridiculously long name. Honestly, if you haven’t read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, you’ve probably at least seen the Lily James movie on Netflix. It’s a story that feels like a warm hug, but it’s rooted in a history that was anything but cozy. We’re talking about the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II, a period of isolation, near-starvation, and a very strange culinary invention born of sheer desperation.
The book wasn't written by a historian. It was written by Mary Ann Shaffer, who got stuck in the Guernsey airport during a thick fog in the 1970s and became obsessed with the island's history. She didn't finish it; she got sick, and her niece Annie Barrows had to step in to help cross the finish line. That’s why the voice feels so layered. It’s an epistolary novel, which basically means it's told through a series of letters. You get to peek into the private thoughts of Juliet Ashton, a London writer, and the islanders who survived a literal nightmare by talking about books.
The Real History Behind the Fiction
The "Society" itself is fictional, but the conditions that created it were 100% real. On June 30, 1940, the Germans landed. For five years, the people of Guernsey were cut off from the UK. Imagine your internet, your mail, and your grocery stores all being controlled by an invading army overnight. It was the only part of the British Isles to be occupied.
Life got small. Very small.
By 1944, after the D-Day landings, the island was effectively besieged. The Germans couldn't get supplies in, and neither could the locals. People were eating "brawn" made from pig heads or trying to make "coffee" out of parsnips. That’s where the Potato Peel Pie comes in. In the book, Will Thisbee invents the pie because there’s literally nothing else. In reality, islanders were doing exactly that—mashing potato peelings into a sort of crust because flour was a luxury from a past life. It tasted like dirt and disappointment, but it kept people alive.
Why We Are Still Obsessed With This Story
There’s a reason this specific story keeps popping up in book clubs and streaming queues. It isn't just a romance. It’s about the "literary" part of the title. The characters in the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society started their book club as an alibi. They got caught out after curfew after a secret pig roast (another act of rebellion) and told the Germans they were coming home from a book discussion.
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Then, they actually had to do it.
They had to read.
Some read Seneca. Others read Catullus or Charles Lamb. They found that stories gave them a way to escape a world where they were forced to work for the "OT" (Organisation Todt) or watch their neighbors disappear. It’s a testament to the idea that art isn't a luxury; it’s a survival mechanism. When you're hungry and cold, a poem might be the only thing that keeps your brain from snapping.
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The Tone of the Island
If you visit Guernsey today, you can still see the massive concrete bunkers the Germans built. They are eyesores. Gray, brutalist structures sitting on beautiful cliffs. The islanders have a complicated relationship with them. Some want them torn down; others think they should stay as a reminder. This tension is all through the book. It’s not a "rah-rah" war story. It’s messy. It deals with collaboration, with women who fell in love with German soldiers (the "Jerry bags"), and the social shunning that followed.
Elizabeth McKenna, the heart of the fictional society, is based on the spirit of real resistance figures like Marie Ozanne. Marie was a member of the Salvation Army who spoke out against the treatment of forced laborers and died due to her imprisonment. She wasn't a soldier. She was just someone who refused to be quiet.
Misconceptions About the Potato Peel Pie Society
A lot of people think the book is a light beach read. It’s marketed that way sometimes, with the floral covers and the "Dear Diary" vibe. But it gets dark. It touches on the slave labor camps on Alderney (a neighboring island) where thousands of people died under the Nazi regime.
Another misconception? That the islanders were all unified.
They weren't.
Occupations create fractures. You had people who traded on the black market and people who starved. You had people who risked their lives to hide a wireless radio just to hear the BBC, and others who turned their neighbors in for a extra loaf of bread. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society shows this through the character of Adelaide Addison, who is basically the neighborhood moral police. She represents that judgmental, rigid side of small-town life that doesn't disappear just because there's a war on.
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The Book vs. The Movie
Look, the 2018 movie is great for scenery. Seeing the British coastline and Lily James in 1940s tweed is a vibe. But the movie simplifies things. It turns a complex web of letters into a more linear romance. If you want the real grit of the Potato Peel Pie Society, you have to read the text. The letters allow for different perspectives—from the cynical London publisher Sidney Stark to the rugged Guernsey farmer Dawsey Adams. You get to see the slow building of trust through the mail, which feels very "old world" and deliberate in our age of instant DMs.
What You Can Actually Learn From It
There is a practical takeaway here about community resilience. The "Society" was a makeshift family. In times of crisis, your biological family might be across the ocean, or they might be the ones you don't get along with. The islanders built a chosen family around shared values—even if those values were just "let's read this book so we don't go crazy."
- Read outside your comfort zone. The characters didn't have a Kindle. They read whatever was on the shelf. Sometimes the most "boring" classic is the one that actually changes your perspective when your life is in upheaval.
- Small acts are big acts. Making a disgusting pie and sharing it with friends was a middle finger to the occupation. Finding joy when you aren't "supposed" to is a form of protest.
- Check the sources. If you're interested in the real deal, look up the Guernsey Occupation Museum. It’s full of the actual items mentioned in the book—ration books, crystal radio sets, and even some of those parsnip coffee recipes.
The Reality of "Potato Peel" Food
If you actually tried to bake a potato peel pie today, you'd find it's mostly starch and grit. The "recipe" in the book is basically just mashed potatoes, beets for sweetness (if you were lucky), and skins. No butter. No salt. It’s a reminder of how much we take for granted. Most people today use "scraps" for compost; back then, those scraps were the difference between a child crying from hunger or sleeping through the night.
The legacy of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society isn't just about a cute story. It's about the fact that even in the most restricted, controlled environments, humans will find a way to talk, to argue about books, and to share a meal—no matter how bad that meal tastes.
Actionable Next Steps
If the history of the occupation or the story of the society has caught your interest, don't just stop at the credits of the movie.
- Visit the Channel Islands: If you're ever in the UK or France, take the ferry. Walking through the "Little Chapel" or visiting the German Underground Hospital in Guernsey gives you a physical sense of the scale of the history that the book only hints at.
- Explore Epistolary Fiction: If you loved the format, check out 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It’s another real-life story told through letters about a love for books that bridges a huge physical distance.
- Research the Alderney Camps: For a deeper, more sober look at the "dark side" of the occupation mentioned in the book, look into the work of researchers like Dr. Caroline Sturdy Colls. She has used forensic archaeology to document the reality of the labor camps that the characters in the book whisper about.
- Join a Real-Life Society: The "Potato Peel" name might be a joke, but the concept isn't. Start a book club that focuses on "survivalist" literature or historical accounts of the 1940s to see how people actually managed the psychological stress of the era.