The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Title: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Based on: Book by the same title
Key Performances:  Lily James, Michiel Huisman , Glen Powellas, Jessica Brown Findlay, Matthew Goode , Tom Courtenay , Penelope Wilton 
Ratings:

War novels are one of my favorite genre and that coupled with a bit of history and romance is just about as perfect as it gets. I haven’t had the pleasure to read this book,  but the movie adaptation with anl all-star caste (some of my favorites from GoT and Dawnton Abbey) just made me want to watch this at the first opportunity I got, which was this very long Eid holiday.

Juliet Ashton (Lilly James) is an author, with a very comfortable life in London. She receives a letter from Dawsey Adams (Michiel Huisman) who is member of a book club called the “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society”. The letter tells her the story of the book club and how books were bringing people together in Guernsey following the Nazi occupation.

Dawsey Adams Narrating his letter: 

Our Friday night book club became a refuge to us. A private freedom to feel the world growing darker all around you, but you only need a candle to see new worlds unfold. That is what we found in our society.

Ashton’s curiosity makes her want to visit the place, meet the people and perhaps write a meaningful newspaper article about them.  So she leaves the comfort of her London apartment and visits the island, here life seems to move at a completely different pace and people are still building themselves up after the war. As she befriends the members of the society and learns more about its founder Elizabeth Mc Kenna. Eventually, the idea of writing a book on them starts growing in her mind. But  as the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the founder unfolds so does the ugliness of war, the severed relationships, the relinquished love and the mutual sacrifice that forms the bonds of the people of Guernsey. Juliet develops a fondness for the Island, the book club and Dawson. A fondness that will change her life forever!

Sidney Stark, the publisher:

The Guernsey literary and potato-peel pie society. Crikey, that’s quite a mouthful.

Contrary to the tongue-twister of a title, this is a fairly straight forward movie and an Austen-worthy romance. It is a breath of fresh air in the ocean of unnecessarily complicated love stories of today. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a very bookish-romance indeed!

Watch the trailer here:

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289403/videoplayer/vi3099899929?ref_=tt_pv_vi_aiv_1