Charm and disarmed

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The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
Kindle Edition, 257 pages Published May 10th 2009 by Bloomsbury Publishing

I have had this book on the to be read pile for a long time and kept putting off reading it. There has been an awful amount of hype about the book and to be honest it was putting off reading it for that reason. Well, this book is a little gem. It is friendly, funny, engaging and just a wonderful escapist read.
World War 2 is slowly receding away and Juliet Ashton is touring the English country promoting her latest book a collection of articles is favourably reviewed. This brings into Juliet's world the New York publisher Markham V. Reynolds, Jr and he woos her by sending copious amounts of flowers. Sidney her publisher, warns Juliet to be careful about Mark but his intentions are romantic. Then Juliet receives a letter from Dawsey Adams, a complete stranger from Guernsey. He writes to her about his love Charles Lamb and how he possesses a copy of a book with Juliet's address. They correspond and soon Juliet finds herself writing to other members of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and finds herself intrigued by these warm and friendly people.
From her the story evolves and each of the characters circulate through and you really do want to know what happens to them.
Being a former letter writer, I loved reading the letters and missed those days. Nothing beats the thrill of getting a letter in the mail and then finding some nice quiet place to read it.
The hype around the novel is well deserved and this is just a wonderful charming read.

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