I was feeling a bit glum last week (two teenagers and one in training, need I say more?!) so I decided that an afternoon at the cinema with a feel-good movie was in order. I’d heard about The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (hereafter shortened to The GLPPPS) on Front Row a few weeks ago and it sounded interesting. It is a really lovely movie, and there is much more to it than just “feel-good” with a bit of romance; it covers historical events about which I’m ashamed to say I knew very little, and it is very engaging.
Successful, beautiful young author Juliet Ashton appears to have it all; she lives in London, where she is planning to buy a new flat, which she can well afford from her fabulous authorly earnings, and is romantically involved with an American military officer, who wants to whisk her off to New York to be his wife. But a dark shadow looms over her existence and she knows there is something missing in her life. Bored with her book tours she accepts a commission from The Times to write an article when, out of the blue, she receives a letter from a farmer in Guernsey, Dawsey Adams, which intrigues her. He has by chance come across a copy of Charles Lamb’s Tales from Shakespeare with her name and former London address written in it. Her past home was destroyed in the War, and both her parents were killed, so the contact marks an emotional moment for her. In his letter, Dawsey writes briefly about the GLPPPS and asks if she might forward another book for the group to read (books were very difficult for them to get hold of when the Nazis occupied the island).
Juliet is intrigued, not only by the request, but also by the strange name of the Society. We have already learned a little of the Society’s origins – its five members were apprehended by a Nazi patrol after curfew after they had shared a roast pork dinner from an illegally concealed pig. At the time of the occupation, locals were forbidden to keep hold of their livestock as all meat was confiscated for the benefit of the German soldiers. As a result the islanders were nearly starved, hence living on delights such as Potato Peel Pie (“no flour, no butter, just potato peel”). The shared meal marks a connection and coming together for the five lonely individuals looking for some togetherness at a very dark time. The Society is ‘authorised’ by the Germans and they continue to meet. It becomes their lifeline. The instigator of the Society, Elizabeth McKenna, is the best friend of Jane, daughter of Amelia Maugery, another of the Society’s founding members.
Juliet decides to go to Guernsey to write about the Society and when she arrives she is immediately won over by their passion for literature, their humanity and their story. She tells them, naively, that she would like to write about them for her article in The Times and assumes they will be only too delighted to give her their blessing. Juliet encounters unexpected hostility, however, in particular from Amelia (played by the marvellous Penelope Wilton), who believes that Juliet, with her London ways, has merely come to gawp at these unsophisticated islanders and that she understands nothing of their lives.
Juliet is horrified that her new friends should be offended by her proposal and desires to dig a little deeper, to understand better and to uncover the truth about what they endured in the occupation. Thus, her weekend stay becomes indefinitely extended, much to the annoyance of Juliet’s fiance, Mark Reynolds. Juliet develops close relationships with other Society members Isola and, of course, the handsome Dawsey. She learns from them that Amelia has never recovered from the death of her daughter Jane, and the unborn child she was carrying, from German bombing at the time of the invasion. She also learns more about Dawsey’s young daughter Kit, and about what has happened to Elizabeth.
I will say no more as it’s a cracking story and I don’t want to spoil it. Multiple plot lines are maintained throughout, and the flashbacks to the origins of the Society and the events that befell them in the War are very well done. The dimension of Juliet’s engagement to her American lover, and her long-standing friendship with her protective publisher, provide interesting side stories. It has a super cast, the characters are well-played, and the Guernsey scenery is stunning – I predict this film will do much for Channel Islands tourism!
Highly recommended and definitely improved my week!
If you get to see this film I’d love to hear what you thought of it.
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Julia's books 
I went to see this film with members of our book club. It was a beautifully shot, gentle film and I loved the characters, the scenery, the filming and the story. I read the book years ago but had forgotten a lot of it so it was lovely revisit. From what I can remember though, the book has a much darker undertone in terms of the complex and conflicted relationship between the German soldiers and the guernsey inhabitants. And this was only dealt with a light touch in the film. Perhaps a missed opportunity? Or maybe the film producers wanted it to be a mystery/history/ romance. Which it did very well. It certainly made me want to visit guernsey – I think the tourist board will be pleased!- and made me more curious about the difficulties of occupation.
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That’s interesting. Yes, you’re right, that aspect of the story is not explored fully in the film. A book is probably a better place for that than a 2 hour film which, as you say, is more mystery/romance. Its scope is narrower. Perhaps that’s why I found it a lovely pick me up!
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The film is vastly inferior to the book; they’d have done much better to turn it into a television mini-series. As it is, so much is changed and so much left out altogether that it drags awfully. Lily James is adorable, but nothing like the older, more courteous and conscious Juliet of the novel. The film character is presented as immature, uncertain of herself, over-impetuous and lacking the sheer agency of the book’s version and vision.
The hero is left little film-uninvented to do, and little enough of that, aside from looking dreamy and generating chemistry with Juliet. The actor, Dutch Michiel Huisman, as been far better elsewhere, and, though most appealing, sports an English accent which at times is cringe worthy.
Jessica Finlay Brown could have made a great Elizabeth, were she allowed to, and the diminutions of her fiercely independent 4-year-old daughter into a conventional waif is unfortunate.
The book isn’t particularly unconventional, but it is singular. The film is even more conventional, and wholly run of the mill, despite some strong performances.
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So many films seem to fall short of the books they are based on, don’t they. I haven’t read the book myself. I think sometimes one likes the film OR the book? It’s a shame though when you love a book and see it turned into something that doesn’t do it justice. You’re right, mini-series are often better.
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It’s true, a lot of adaptations fall short, especially when the book (or play) is a good one. However, there are exceptions. I think both the 1995 Pride and Prejudice mini series is excellent, and the 1980 not bad, though of course those are mini series. But the 1995 film of Persuasion is excellent, and I think the 1995 Sense and Sensibility actually does better with the core story than Jane Austen did herself. That was a very good year for Austen adaptations; Emma Thompson, accepting her Oscar for the screenplay, noted she’d visited Austen’s grave, “to pay my respects, and tell her about the grosses.”
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I don’t think I have seen the adaptation of Persuasion, but I’m currently re-reading Sense and Sensibility in my book club and I am sure we will watch the film too, which I’m excited about because I also remember it very fondly. Yes, 1995 was a good year wasn’t it! I live not too far from Lyme Park, the Derbyshire NT property where much of the Pride and Prejudice mini series was filmed. They have lots of events on there at the moment to mark the 250 year anniversary of Austen’s birth. I haven’t managed to get along to anything yet, but I really must.
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