The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

A movie for researchers and book lovers

This excellent movie tells the story of Juliet Ashton, a young author that got to know a modest book club — or Literary Society — founded during the German occupation in WW2 on Guernsey island. Moved by curiosity after exchanging letters with one of the Society members, she went to the island to get to know the group in person.
Her primary goal in knowing the Society was to write an article for the London Times about the effect of reading on those people’s lives. After meeting the group, however, they were very uncomfortable with having their lives exposed in a newspaper. So they decided that she couldn’t write about the Society. However, she discovered that underlying that decision was a mystery that no one wanted to tell her: during the German occupation, the Society’s founder left the island and never returned. So she got intrigued to discover why.

Considering that, she changed her research topic to focus on what so terrible happened during the German occupation of the island that profoundly affected the Society. The film teaches excellent lessons on conducting field research and approaching the locals to gather information for your ethnography. I’ll mention a few:

Approaching the locals — she is a stranger from a big city, arriving on a small island to ask difficult questions. Obviously, the locals would feel uncomfortable answering her questions in the first place. They didn’t know her, other than that she was a writer from London. They had a good first meeting, but they closed themselves to her approach after that.

Dealing with sensitive issues — a new-arrived person started asking questions about a difficult time the people had a few years ago doesn’t seem a promising start. She got lots of silence in response to her inquiries as people changed the subject to avoid the pain to relive that moment. But little by little, she earned the right to ask questions. Finally, she got the people’s trust, and they started having open conversations with her.

Interviews — Juliet has several conversations with different people to gather information on her research topic. These are not formal interviews, though. The point is that she gets different perspectives from various people on the same subject. Sometimes she doesn’t need to ask a question. Her interlocutor just split it out during the conversation.

Bibliographic research — she spends a reasonable amount of time in the local library studying the newspaper of that period and the official correspondences. She is always taking notes on what she discovers with bibliographic research.

Note-taking process — she wrote down every piece of information she discovered in her field notebook, either from the bibliography research or the interviews. She also crossed references according to her discoveries to make her notes understandable and relevant.

Adjust the environment — She wanted to go unnoticed as much as possible. One of the first things she does is take off her engagement ring as it draws unnecessary attention. We can also see her involved in the daily life of the people. She goes to the Society’s reading meetings, helps them with their kids, works in the hovel, etc. It’s an excellent example of participant observation.

I highly recommend this film. It is a delightful love letter for book enthusiasts and a helpful guide for field researchers. I learned a lot from her research process. And the best part: she doesn’t die at the end.