If you’ve ever picked up a book because the title sounded like a fever dream, you’ve probably met Juliet Ashton. She’s the heart of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, a novel that somehow managed to turn a bleak historical reality into something deeply cozy and human. It’s a mouthful of a name. Honestly, it shouldn't work. But it does.
The book, written by Mary Ann Shaffer and her niece Annie Barrows, is an epistolary novel. That's just a fancy way of saying it’s told entirely through letters. Some people find that format annoying. They want a "real" narrator. But in this case, the letters feel like eavesdropping on a private conversation between friends who are trying to make sense of a world that just stopped being at war.
What Most People Get Wrong About the History
A lot of readers assume the German Occupation of the Channel Islands was just like the occupation of mainland France. It wasn't. Because Guernsey is an island, it was a literal cage. When the Nazis arrived in 1940, they didn't just walk in; they cut the islands off from the rest of the world.
Think about that for a second. No mail. No radio. No news from England, which was visible on a clear day.
The "Potato Peel Pie" isn't some quirky metaphor. It was a survival tactic. During the final years of the war, the islanders were genuinely starving. The German soldiers were starving too. When the Red Cross ship, the Vega, finally arrived in late 1944, it was the only reason people didn't die of malnutrition in mass numbers.
The Society itself—the fictional one—was born out of a desperate lie. Elizabeth McKenna, the bravest character in the book, makes up the club on the spot to avoid being arrested for breaking curfew after a secret pig roast. It’s funny in the book, but in real life, breaking curfew under Nazi rule could get you deported to a continental camp. That's the nuance Shaffer nails: the terrifying proximity of a laugh and a death sentence.
The Real Person Behind the Fiction
Mary Ann Shaffer wasn't a career novelist. She was a librarian and an editor. She actually went to Guernsey in the late 1970s and got stranded there because of heavy fog. To pass the time, she started reading everything in the airport gift shop about the occupation.
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She obsessed over it for twenty years.
She didn't start writing the book until she was in her 70s. Sadly, she got sick before it was finished and asked her niece, Annie Barrows (who wrote the Ivy + Bean kids' books), to help her cross the finish line. Shaffer died before she could see the book become a global phenomenon. It’s bittersweet. You can feel that lifelong curiosity in every page. It’s not a "fast" book, but it’s a deep one.
Why the Letter-Writing Format Actually Works
Modern readers are used to instant gratification. We want the plot now. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society asks you to slow down.
By reading Juliet’s correspondence with Dawsey Adams—a pig farmer who finds her name in a secondhand book—you're seeing their relationship grow through ink and paper. It’s slow-burn romance at its best. There are no DMs. There’s just the agonizing wait for the next boat to carry a response.
The letters allow for different voices. You get the snobbery of Billee Bee, the warmth of Sophie Strachan, and the grumpiness of Eben Ramsey. It’s a choir of perspectives. If this were a standard third-person novel, we’d lose that sense of community that the title promises.
The 2018 Movie vs. The Book
Let’s talk about the Netflix film starring Lily James.
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It’s beautiful. The costumes are spot on. The locations—mostly filmed in Devon and Cornwall because Guernsey itself has changed too much since the 40s—are breathtaking. But movies have to simplify things.
In the book, Juliet’s struggle is internal. She’s a writer who doesn't know what she wants to say anymore. The movie turns it into a more traditional mystery-romance. One major difference? The character of Kit. In the book, the way the community raises Elizabeth’s daughter is much more of a collective effort. It highlights the "Society" aspect.
Also, the movie tones down the darker elements of the occupation. It misses some of the grit. If you’ve only seen the film, you’re getting the "Postcard Version." The book gives you the "Dirt Under the Fingernails Version."
The Legacy of Elizabeth McKenna
Elizabeth is the ghost that haunts the entire narrative. She’s the one who started the society, but she’s not there when the book begins. She was deported to Ravensbrück, a women's concentration camp.
Shaffer didn't sugarcoat this. Elizabeth’s fate is a reminder that even in a story about books and pies, the Holocaust was happening just across the water. Her character represents the moral compass of the story. She couldn't look away from suffering, even when it was dangerous to care. Her relationship with the German doctor, Christian Hellman, adds a layer of complexity that people often forget. It wasn't all black and white. It was humans caught in a machine they couldn't control.
Visiting the Real Guernsey Today
If you go to the island now, you can still see the bunkers. Huge, concrete monsters built by slave laborers (the Organization Todt) that still sit on the cliffs.
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- The German Underground Hospital: It’s damp, cold, and eerie. It’s a massive maze of tunnels carved into the rock. It’s the best way to understand the scale of the fortification.
- The Little Chapel: It’s decorated with shells and broken china. It’s tiny. It captures that spirit of making something beautiful out of scraps, which is basically the theme of the book.
- La Vallette German Occupation Museum: It’s packed with personal items—gas masks, ration books, and letters. It makes the fiction feel very, very real.
Honestly, the islanders have a complicated relationship with this history. For a long time, it wasn't talked about much. The book actually helped bring a new wave of interest (and tourism) to the islands, forcing a lot of that history back into the light.
Actionable Steps for Fans of the Story
If this story resonated with you, don't just stop at the final chapter. There are ways to dive deeper into the actual history and the literary style.
Read the Non-Fiction Backstory
Pick up The Silent War by Frank Falla. He was a real Guernsey journalist who was deported for running an underground newsletter. He’s the real-life version of the resistance spirits Shaffer wrote about.
Try "Epistolary" Fiction
If you loved the letter format, read 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. It’s also about a long-distance friendship built through a love of books. It’s shorter and will make you want to visit a London bookshop immediately.
Host a "Society" Night
Don't actually make the potato peel pie unless you have to—it’s notoriously bland. Instead, gather people to talk about a book that changed how they saw the world. The whole point of the story is that literature isn't a luxury; it’s a bridge.
Support the Local History
If you ever travel to the UK, take the ferry or the tiny plane to Guernsey. Visit the museums. See the fortifications. The best way to keep the memory of the real "Society" alive is to acknowledge the actual cost of the occupation.
The story isn't just about a pie. It’s about the fact that even when the world is ending, people will still find a way to talk about books. We need that connection. We crave it. And that’s why Juliet and Dawsey will probably still be popular another fifty years from now.
Next Steps for Your Reading List:
If you want more historical fiction that deals with the "unseen" parts of WWII, look into The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah or All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. Both pair well with the themes of resistance and resilience found in Guernsey.