The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, By Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

The memorable title of Shaffer's first (and sadly last) novel is the name of a war-time book club, invented by a group of Guern-sey villagers stopped by a German patrol for breaking curfew.

Posthumously published, and completed by her niece, this epistolary novel revolves around the post-war correspondence between an English writer, Juliet, fascinated by life in occupied Guernsey, and a local pig farmer.

Shaffer's writing, with its self-deprecating humour and jaunty stylishness, is a heart-warmingly nostalgic journey into another age.