A review of the 2018 film “The Guernsey Literary And Potato Peel Pie Society”
I literally knew nothing about this film except its quirky title when I sat down to watch it during the lockdown period of the coronavirus crisis. I imagined that it was some sort of romantic comedy, but found that, while there was romance, it was a much more substantive story about life on the Channel island during the wartime German occupation.
The narrative is set immediately after the Second World War in 1946 and involves a writer, Juliet Ashton (delightfully played by Lily James), visiting the island to meet members of the titular society and gradually discovering information – illustrated through flash-backs to the war – about the dreadful conditions and choices faced by the island’s occupants during rule by the Wehrmacht.
Surprisingly, the film is based on a novel written by the American Mary Ann Shaffer together with her niece Annie Barrows. Shaffer was an author, editor, librarian, and bookshop worker and books are a recurrent theme of the story. Also surprisingly, none of the work was shot on Guernsey itself, a beautiful island which I have visited.
But the English locations are splendidly used and the attention to wartime clothing, hairstyles and artefacts provide real authenticity. An impressive support cast includes faces which will be well-known to British viewers such as Tom Courtenay, Penelope Wilton and Katherine Parkinson. So, all in all, a little-known film that is a joy to discover.