I don’t go to the cinema very often, but yesterday I saw a beautiful film. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. Based on the book by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows it stars a few familiar faces from “Downton Abbey”: Lily James, Jessica Brown Findlay, Matthew Goode and Penelope Wilton, alongside Michiel Huisman, Tom Courtney and Katherine Parkinson.
The film is about Juliet, played by Lily James. Juliet is a successful novelist looking for her next story. Traumatised by the events of the war when she lost her parents, she struggles to find a focus in her life despite being courted by a wealthy American who seems to adore her. Then Juliet receives a mysterious letter from someone called Dawsey Adams who, she learns, is a farmer in Guernsey. He discovered her name and address in a book given to his literary society. Because he enjoyed the book so much, he asks if she can tell him where to find more books by the same author. Then he tells her the origins of his literary society’s curious name.
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Intrigued, Juliet responds to the farmer, and they exchange a few letters as the seed of an idea germinates in her mind. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society would make a great story! She will travel to Guernsey and meet these people.
And so her adventure begins.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Guernsey as my parents lived there, so I was looking forward to seeing some familiar landmarks, but I struggled to recognise any of the scenery in the film. I only later learned the film’s principal filming locations were Devon and Cornwall. But I learned some new things about Guernsey, such as how under German occupation, the islanders almost starved, how they evacuated most of their children before the Germans arrived, and how harsh the islanders’ lives were during German occupation. From the comments I’ve read about this film, I understand the story paints a pretty accurate picture of life at it was then.
Many of the critics panned it for being overly sentimental and too long, but I felt the time slipped by quickly. Michiel Huisman, who plays the part of Dawsey, will be familiar from his roles in “Game of Thrones”, “The Age of Adaline” & “The Haunting of Hill House”. I found him very easy on the eye, and for a romance writer, the ending didn’t disappoint.
Now I must read the book.
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