The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Written in epistolary form, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a historical novel set during the German Occupation of the English Channel Islands during World War II (WWII). The novel was co-written by Mary Ann Shaffer, an editor, librarian, and bookshop clerk, and her niece, Annie Barrows, author of the Ivy and Bean children’s books series. Shaffer began writing the novel, but when she was diagnosed with cancer she requested Barrows’s help to complete it. Shaffer passed away a few months before the novel was published on July 29, 2008, by Dial Press. It spent 11 weeks at number one on The New York Times Best Seller list. The book was adapted into a film in 2018 under the same name.

This study guide refers to the 2008 Dial Press e-book edition distributed by Google Books.

Content Warning: The novel features depictions and discussions of the experiences of victims of the German Occupation of the English Channel Islands and Nazi concentration camps. These include references to sexual assault and sexual exploitation.

Language Note: The authors often capitalize terms such as “German Occupation” or “Society” to refer to the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society. For consistency, the authors’ capitalization will be retained in this guide.

Plot Summary

Shortly after the end of WWII, Juliet Ashton, a successful London-based writer, is on tour to promote her recently published manuscript. As she struggles to find direction for her new writing project, she receives a letter from a man named Dawsey Adams, a Guernsey islander who has in his possession one of her old Charles Lamb books. The pair begin to correspond, and soon Juliet finds herself intrigued by the history of Dawsey’s literary society, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, whose inception involved a stolen roast pig, a drunken hobble home, the German army, and quick thinking from Dawsey’s friend, Elizabeth McKenna. When Juliet’s close friend and editor Sidney ropes her into writing an article about literature’s value for the Times, Juliet thinks of Dawsey and his Society friends and asks for their insights on how literature shaped their experiences during the war.

What begins as an innocuous request for information develops into a series of stories that relate the difficulties of living under the German Occupation of the English Channel Islands and reveal the resilience of the Society members. Through their correspondence, Juliet befriends the likes of Isola Pribby, a local brewer of elixirs; Amelia Maugery, the wise maternal figure of the Society; Eben Ramsay, a stoic farmer; John Booker, a successful impersonator; and Elizabeth McKenna, the Society’s founder, whom Juliet learns was deported to a concentration camp. Through them, she learns of the attempts to evacuate the islands’ children, the horrifying living conditions of the Todt enslaved workers, as well as of steadfast kindness from the most unexpected of sources. While juggling a whirlwind romance with the American publishing tycoon Mark Reynolds, a budding affection for Dawsey, and her growing devotion to uncovering Guernsey’s local history, Juliet decides to visit the island and finds herself falling in love with both the island’s people and the seaside landscape.

Time flies, and with the Society members’ assistance, Juliet becomes an integral part of the community as a Society member and as a surrogate mother to Kit, Elizabeth’s daughter. One day, the Society receives a letter from a woman by the name of Remy Giraud, who had known Elizabeth during their time in the Ravensbrück concentration camp. She informs the Society of Elizabeth’s bravery, her need to defend the helpless women with whom she was incarcerated, and how, in the end, it was her selflessness that led to her being executed mere weeks before the camp’s liberation. At Dawsey and Amelia’s insistence, Remy travels to Guernsey to meet the Society, of whom she had heard so many stories. She unintentionally becomes Juliet’s rival for Dawsey’s love. When it becomes clear that Remy will find no peace in Guernsey, however, she returns to France. As Juliet comes to terms with refusing to marry Mark, she resolves to take her chance with the one who has captured her heart. Nervous, blunt, and courageous only because there is evidence that Dawsey might reciprocate her feelings, Juliet confronts him and asks him to marry her. He accepts.