7 Tidbits About the Potato Peel Pie Novel You Might Not Know

I first read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society novel several years ago and it became one of my all-time favorite books. The appeal was not in the title–I couldn’t resist the back-cover copy or the fact that it was written as letters rather than chapters.

When the bestselling novel became a movie, I feared I wouldn’t enjoy it like I did the book. I was more than pleasantly surprised how wonderfully it stayed true to the novel and wasn’t at all surprised at how popular it became with the movie crowd. I recently reread the Potato Peel Pie novel, enjoyed it even more–if possible, and was reminded of an article I’d read soon after I’d finished it the first time.

Here are 7 tidbits I learned about the novel and author from that article and the resulting research it inspired me to do:

1. The novel sold at auction to Dial Press, a division of Random House in 2006, rumored to be in six figures.
2. Her novel was inspired by a trip to Cambridge, England in 1980, where she made a decision to visit the island of Guernsey in the English Channel before she returned to her home in California. She became stranded at the small Guernsey airport when fog grounded flights for twenty hours and discovered books on the German occupation in the English Channel and became intrigued.
3. It was the first novel Mary Ann Shaffer had finished, and she did so at the prodding of her writing group, which consisted of two good friends and her sister, who formed the group in hopes of encouraging her to write the book she had researched and  talked of for twenty years.
4. At the time Dial Press sent revisions to Mary Ann, she had been diagnosed with cancer and was too ill to complete them by herself.
5. Her sister’s daughter, Annie Barrows, worked with Mary Ann to accomplish the revisions.
6. Mary Ann passed away, at age 73, on February 16, 2008. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society released on May 5, 2009.
7. Her niece, Annie, took her first trip to Guernsey in 2008, amazed that everything she’d imagined about the island was unfolding before her even as the ferry plowed through the waters toward the dock. “The old fortress hove into view and I saw the city rising, exactly as it was supposed to, in terraced layers.” The Potato Peel Pie novel became reality to her.

What a true blessing it was to Mary Ann to know her novel would be published, and what a blessing the deep loyalty, commitment, and adeptness of her niece must have been. Her novel could not have been published without Annie and all of the talent she brought to the project, but the magic found in that novel–for there was magic–was surely born in that cold airport and nurtured by the armload of books she flew home with.                              

“That’s what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you onto a third book. It’s geometrically progressive – all with no end in sight, and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.”
― Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society 

“Juliet’s personality is like my aunt’s. Juliet’s willingness to be fascinated by somebody else’s story is an essential part of her character, that is not just curiosity, but a delighted generosity of interest.”       ~Annie Barrows

REBECCA DEMARINO writes love, legends, and lore as a historical romance author. She is the author of The Southold Chronicles, a three-book series from Revell, based on the real lives of her ancestors, the Hortons, who sailed on a little ship called The Swallow from England to Long Island in the 17^th century. She inherited her love of baking and gardening from her mother, a love of horses, reading, and writing from her dad, and the wanderlust gene from both parents. Her research and travels have taken her from Alaska to Nebraska and Florida, from Long Island to England and Italy, and from Washington DC to Texas, California and Guam. But usually you can find her at home in the beautiful Pacific NW, enjoying her grandchildren and baking crisp little ginger cakes just like her Grandmother Horton’s.

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of mine heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord my strength, and my redeemer.” Psalm 19:14, 1599 Geneva Bible (GNV)