Backwater War by Peggy Woodford - WWII in the Channel Islands

Title: Backwater War
Author: Peggy Woodford
Publication: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, hardcover, 1974
Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction
Setting: Guernsey, Channel Islands, World War II

Description: German forces have occupied Guernsey, appropriating food and resources from the islanders who are British subjects.   Anna Hardy’s younger brother has been evacuated with most of the Island children but at 17 Anna refused to go, feeling she could not run away.   When the Germans requisition the Hardys’ house, Anna and her parents have just a few hours to pack clothing, food, and valuables and take refuge with a difficult aunt five miles away. 

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Everyone had been recommending this book to me, so I bought it for my sister's birthday and thoughtfully read it first to make sure she would like it. I actually found it very charming and with a real flavor of a bygone era - not only is it set just after WWII, it reads very much like a D.E. Stevenson written in that era.

The premise is that writer Juliet Ashton is tired and depressed after the war, to the point that she can't even enjoy the success of her bestseller because she feels it is trite and the people who admire it are shallow. She is already worried about finding her next topic, when she unexpectedly receives a letter from Guernsey where a local farmer has unexpectedly come into possession of one of her books (with her address inscribed on the flyleaf). Through their correspondence. she is drawn into the lives of the islanders and eventually travels to Guernsey to write about their struggles and triumphs during the war. Of course, the project distracts Juliet from her war-induced weariness and helps her regroup and start anew but it doesn't feel like a cliche.