January 1946: writer Juliet Ashton receives a letter from a stranger, a founding member of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. And so begins a remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.

“ I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.


From the Hardcover edition.

Previously published as two novels, 'Guernsey - Rachel's Story' draws together 'Rachel's Shoe' and sequel 'The Causeway' into a single volume. Nestled in the bay of St Malo, the Channel Islands claim the unique, if unenviable distinction of being the only part of Britain to have been occupied by a foreign power in hundreds of years. Life in the islands during the five years under the Jackboot was hard and freedoms severely curtailed, but the spirit of a teenage Guernsey boy called Tom Le Breton was never dampened. This is the story of a dramatic wartime rescue and the romance that grew between Tom and a young Jewish girl imprisoned on the nearby island of Alderney. The story moves from those dangerous but somehow magical days to the heady 1970s when long-since forgotten events return to haunt a small family now settled on the Western coast of Guernsey. Impregnated with the atmosphere of remote islands and their unique history, Rachel's Story is about the survival of innocence in a world dominated by obsessions for power and wealth.