Page 71 - Phonebox Magazine March 2011

Book Review
By Oxfam Bookshop, Olney
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
This unusual, quirky book is written as a series of letters written in 1946, correspondence initially between the author Juliet Ashton and her publisher, but then between Juliet and various members of the literary society after which the book is named. It is this later correspondence which takes up most of the book, and from which the reader learns not only about the various society members, but also about life in guernsey under the nazi occupation.
The rather strange name for the Society was the brain child of elizabeth, one of its founder- members. In reality, a group of islanders had been feasting on roast pig, which had been hidden from the occupation forces and eaten in secret. Caught out after curfew, it was elizabeth who claimed that they were members of the guernsey Literary Society, and that the discussion of the novel ‘elizabeth and her german garden’ had proved so fascinating that they had lost track of time. The addition to the Society’s title came later, when the group decided to bring it into being as fact, rather than improvised fiction.
It is on a literary matter that the first letter from an islander to Juliet is written, asking for the name and address of a bookshop in London where he might obtain copies of Charles Lamb’s writings. He had read a copy of Lamb’s ‘Selected essays of elia’ – an old book which had once belonged to Juliet, and which had her name and address written inside its front cover – and wished to read more. Juliet responds to his request, and the connection is established.
Interspersed with the guernsey correspondence are other letters, between Juliet and her publisher, her friend Sophie and a mysterious Markham V. Reynolds who persists in sending her extravagant bouquets of flowers. They all reveal much about Juliet’s character and relationships, a frivolous element which balances the darker, more chilling aspect of the later letters from guernsey, letters which reveal much about the fate of the islanders during the dark days of enemy occupation.
This is a gem of a book, one which grabs our interest from the first page and keeps us hooked to the end. It is the only novel by Mary Ann Shaffer, whose health declined soon after her book was accepted and sold to publishers around the world. Before she died she knew that it was to be published in thirteen countries.
Review by Thelma Shacklady
Local author has her second book published
Hello, my name is Jane Burdiak and I have recently had my second book, Domestic Science published. The euphoria of writing my first novel Patchwork and being published in January 2009 inspired me to continue to put pen to paper.
I wrote Domestic Science for the sheer joy of capturing memories, things that crop up in my day, leaving me frustrated or exasperated or happy or sad or thrilled. I have to say that I find my own life so incredibly satisfying. It is brimming with everything, my job is so unique and special to me and my family underpin all that I do. I feel that my life is every bit as interesting to know about as the sensationalism that appears daily in the media and I think too that for some, it is a shame that those peoples’ lives are sometimes made to seem artificial and somehow shallow, when truly they are not, while others see it as an opportunity to manipulate or to be exploited by others to tell their stories, which are often bolstered and exaggerated out of all proportion. My day-to-day life is quite ordinary. I get up, go to work, come home, make dinner, do this and that and then go to bed. However, it is not mundane and far from boring, each episode generates ample material and it interests me also, how much can be packed into a certain amount of time, when at times, this seems to be impossible. Parallel with the busyness of the day is another world, that constantly teams with unrelated thoughts and memories and ideas, all the while whirring about in my head, even plaguing sleep. Domestic Science moves from month to month, randomly describing in careful detail often fairly
incidental things that happen in my day. It is how the day is. Much of the story is set in and around Newport Pagnell and many will recognise the High Street and its shops and some will remember how it used to be.
It is a memorable journey and very readable.
I hope that by reading Domestic Science people will feel inspired and that they will look more closely at their own lives and come to appreciate what they do and to value what they have and to realize that everything is there to aspire to.
Domestic Science is published by Austin and Macauley
Review by Sandra Metcalf
A Good Year by Peter Mayle
Max Skinner works in the City of London in the cut-throat world of asset stripping. On the day that a despised colleague steals a promising deal from under his nose, and engineers his resignation, Max receives a letter telling him that his Uncle Henry with whom he spent most of his summer holidays as a boy, has died and left him a farmhouse and vineyard in the south of France. Persuaded to go and look the property over by his friend Charlie who is a wine buff and property dealer, Max heads for Provence. Here the pleasures of escaping the rat race return to him and he finds an unexpected relative in the shape of visiting American Christie, old acquaintances the Rousell’s, a promising new relationship with
café owner Fanny, and a mystery centred on the wine produced from his land.
I don’t think Peter Mayle has been particularly well served by the film industry. The television version of “A Year in
Province” was a travesty of his entertaining and enjoyable account of the first year he lived in Provence. And the movie supposedly based on this book actually tells a different story with different personalities (particularly Max’s) and replaces with slapstick comedy the interesting exploration of some of the wilder aspects of the wine industry – one of the themes which drives the book’s plot and which provides a vehicle for interaction between the characters. It’s worth watching for the lyrical photography of the landscape and for the splendid Albert Finney bringing to life Uncle Henry and with him the sense of Max recovering some of what he has lost as a person – but in most ways I think the book is better. For while Mayle’s fiction could never be described as highbrow, it is both enjoyable and painlessly informative. His plots twist and turn, characters are engaging and occasionally vivid and he makes good use of his background knowledge of the world of advertising and finance. Above all his love of Provence and the way of life it represents shines through everything he writes. To quote Charlie: “Max? Tell me the worst. Is it really wonderful down there?” Max looked across the vines towards the Luberon and the great sweep of blue sky, and thought of a life without suits or meetings or office politics, without traffic jams or polluted air. “Yes,” he said, “Yes, it is.” It does make you long to drop everything and catch the next plane even if, like me, you don’t enjoy hot weather!
Phonebox Magazine 71
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