Featured Links
New book titles and other products
Out of Print titles
If the book you are looking for is out of print, then abebooks.com is highly recommended.
Book Reviews & Feedback
If there are any books you think should be here, or you would like to submit a review for any of the books featured here, please contact the Webmaster.
Bookshop
Welcome to the Guernsey Society Bookshop. Here you will find a select range of books relating to Guernsey and the Channel Islands available through amazon.co.uk and abebooks.com.
Family History
Tracing Your Channel Islands Ancestors: A Guide for Family Historians by Marie-Louise Backhurst
Tracing Your Channel Islands Ancestors is an expert introduction for the family historian to the wealth of material available to researchers in libraries and archives in Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney and Sark. Full information is given on how to access the civil birth, marriage and death records which are only available in the islands and differ in format from those in England and Wales.
Marie-Louise Backhurst covers the census, church records, nonconformist registers, rating lists, newspapers, wills and inheritance, official records, and the variety of other sources that can illuminate a past life and make family history research so rewarding. Migration has played a large part in the history of the islands and details of the records are fully explained.
This authoritative and easy-to-use guide to these collections, and the author’s advice on how to use them and get the most out of them, will be invaluable to anyone who is trying to find out about the life and experience of an ancestor who lived in the Channel Islands or was connected with them.
This book will equally be essential reading and reference for anyone who wants to explore the history of the Channel Islands.
Guernsey Fiction
The Book of Lies by Mary Horlock
The Book of Lies spins together stories told forty years apart, dwelling on the dark and difficult truths hidden within a family and on an island during the Second World War. It tells the stories, of Catherine Rozier growing up in Guernsey in the 1980s, and her uncle Charlie's experience during the German Occupation of World War II.
"An original, compelling and powerful new voice in British Fiction", Hanif Kureshi
Longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award 2011, September 2011
The Collaborator by Margaret Leroy
A forbidden love...a private war. There's a sudden scatter of birds in the sky. I flinch. Little things seem violent to me. And in that moment my decision is made. It's 1940, Guernsey. Vivienne de la Mare waits nervously for the bombs to drop. Instead comes quiet surrender and insidious occupation. Nothing is safe anymore. Her husband is fighting on the frontline and the facade of being the perfect wife is cracking. Her new life is one where the enemy lives next door. Small acts of kindness from one Nazi soldier feel like a betrayal. But how can you hate your enemy when you know his name, when he makes you feel alive, when everything else is dying around you? Vivienne is fighting her own private war. On one side, the safe, secret, loving world she could build with her captain; on the other, virtuous loneliness and danger. It's time for Vivienne to choose: collaboration or resistance...Margaret Leroy explores a forbidden friendship in a frightening world. In the darkest hours in history, no choices are simple.
World War II
Life in Occupied Guernsey: The Diaries of Ruth Ozanne 1940-1945
The diaries of Ruth Ozanne give us a remarkable eyewitness account of daily life during the German occupation of Guernsey from 1940 to 1945. At the beginning of the occupation, there is an atmosphere of good-humoured defiance on the Island. Life gradually darkens, however, as vastly more arms and troops arrive, luxuries quickly disappear and severe food shortages make the struggle to survive considerably tougher. Towards the end, both the Islanders and the occupying army are starving. Through it all, Ruth meticulously records the rumours, the rations, the scandals, the trials and the tribulations of life under the Nazis as she and her friend and housekeeper Florence battle to care for their home, their elderly relatives and 'gallant' Garry - Ruth's Highland Terrier. She writes with a dry wit and her diaries are testament to the resilience, resourcefulness and humanity of Guernsey people during the Second World War.
RUTH OZANNE was born in 1888 and died in 1970. For most of her life she lived in St Peter Port in Guernsey. She was a lifelong diary writer. Her first diary was written at the age of thirteen and her final diary was completed at the end of the Second World War. In between, she wrote sixteen volumes, including five volumes recounting her experiences during the First World War. After her death, the diaries passed to relatives but remained unread until they were discovered in an attic in Edinburgh in 2009.
Outpost of Occupation: The Nazi Occupation of the Channel Islands 1940-45 by Barry Turner
Once Britain demilitarised the idyllic, unspoilt Channel Islands in 1940, their fate was sealed: the Germans invaded. In this fascinating account of the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War Two, Barry Turner paints a vivid picture of what life could have been like for the rest of the country should Hitler's plan have been successful. This extremely readable and fair-minded account shows not only the extreme hardships suffered by the Channel Islanders, but also their resolve.
"... draws on much original research and provides a gripping and eminently fair account of the Occupation, enabling the reader to make intriguing comparisons with events during the occupation of Jersey, which are not perhaps well-known in Guernsey. This history sets out to rebut the legacy of suspicion and recrimination which continues to exist in some quarters, and succeeds, convincingly in doing so." Book Review, Review of the Guernsey Society, Summer 2011.
Nature & Environment
Guernsey's Coast by Rob Batiste
This beautifully-presented hardback book is the definitive celebration of Guernsey's coastline. Based on a major series of articles appearing in the Guernsey Evening Press over a four year period, it is brought to life with a plethora of photographs old and new, including stunning new images from local photographer Andrew Le Poidevin.
Guernsey's Countryside: An Introduction to the History of the Rural Landscape by Richard Hocart
This new book by Richard Hocart traces the development of our rural landscape from prehistory to the present day. It covers many themes such as fiefs, settlement patterns, roads, houses, fields (particularly the enclosure of open fields), banks and trees, mills and churches and will include local peculiarities such as rabbit warrens, fief courts, stone well heads and abreuvoirs.It is written for the general reader and is illustrated with 90 photographs (85 in colour) and six maps.
In his highly readable and well-illustrated book, Richard Hocart has told the absorbing story of the island's changing countryside, from its early origins, right up to the present day. Review of the Guernsey Society, Winter 2010
Nostalgia
Guernsey Past and Present by Brian & Patricia Shipman
This collection of past and present photographs offers the opportunity to compare and contrast changing modes of fashion and transportation, shops and businesses, streets and cottages, whilst recalling local people who once lived and worked in Guernsey. The old images come from the authors' private collection of Victorian glass plate negatives, and offer a contrast with the modern photographs which reveal some of the developments that have taken place during the intervening 100 years. Guernsey Past and Present is sure to appeal to anyone interested in the history of this fascinating Channel Island.
"A group of elegant young Victorian ladies are pictured sitting amidst an outcrop of rocks on the beach at Cobo which, today, are almost completely buried by the sand ... Who would have expected to see a dancing bear at La Salerie? Definitely then, of course, not now!".
Book Review - Guernsey Society Review, Winter 2011
Bloney Good Times: Memories of Growing Up in Guernsey in the 1950s and 1960s
The four friends who have compiled this pot pourri of memories met when working in a bank and would get together to reminisce about the way they lived their lives fifty and more years ago. This profusely illustrated book is the result of their joint personal memories, and those of their friends and relatives, coupled with free access to the copious files of "The Guernsey Evening Press" - as it then was.
Book Review - Guernsey Society Review, Spring 2010
History
Guernsey Merchants and their World by Gregory Stevens-Cox
This fascinating and highly-readable book summarises investigations made by Dr Stevens-Cox which focus on identifying the lesser-known merchants of the 18th century, chronicling their remarkable stories, their enterprise, their wealth and their rank. He describes the education and up-bringing of their young and, through their correspondence, provides an illuminating view into their lives, both ashore and afloat, together with accounts of their business successes and setbacks.
Book Review from Guernsey Society Review, Spring 2010
The author, Gregory Stevens-Cox, has also written St Peter Port - the History of an Internal Entrepot - also available here.
This book, which is not available through amazon, is available through the Guernsey Society at a special price of £30. For more details, please contact us.
Telling Tales: Guernsey News, Views, Ideas, Snippets and Gossip from the Early to Mid-1800s
Instead of being lost in time between the pages of old newspapers and books, these accounts and opinions of a bygone age are uniquely collected together into a compilation which shines a torch on the social history of Guernsey. Complemented by local prints of the era, this valuable contemporary study of Guernsey's heritage will please the reader, genealogist and historian alike.
The Author Susan Ilie was born in Guernsey and works as an independent family history researcher.
Poetry
A Guernsey Double: The Boy Who Fell Upwards/The Man Who Landed
A Guernsey Double invites you to explore Guernsey in the company of poets Peter Kenny and Richard Fleming. Full of love for a lost island, Peter Kenny's 'The Boy Who Fell Upwards' depicts a childhood in the parish of St Martin. It also deals with his frequent, bittersweet returns to Guernsey after his exile in London. Richard Fleming's 'The Man Who Landed' features the poetry of a man who arrived in the island 16 years ago from his native Northern Ireland. In Guernsey he has found home, love and stability after 'The Troubles', and a place, at long last, where he could write. Each poem uses the beautiful island of Guernsey as its stunning backdrop: from megalithic tombs to beach kiosks on the sunset shores of the west coast, this book will immeasurably enrich your experience of Guernsey.
"Not since the extraordinarily poetic Book of Ebenezer le Page has a single volume made the soul of the island so unremittingly its focus ... For Guernsey people, or visitors, this book is a rich addition to their experience of the island."
from the introduction by Professor Edward Chaney, Southampton Solent University.
Current Affairs
Planet Guernsey - Towards a Sustainable Future by Andrew Casebow (editor)
This booklet puts the global issue of Climate Change into a local context. It documents its effects on our lives and the Bailiwick's environment, and proposes ways in which we can respond to that challenge.
Visual Arts
Guernsey Sketchbook by Valerie Baines
The artist has been visiting the island for over 40 years, and this collection of watercolours provides a visual tour of the island from coastal vistas to St Peter Port scenes.
Victor Hugo
Toilers of the Sea by Victor Hugo
A new paperback edition of the novel written by Victor Hugo during his exile in Guernsey & dedicated to the people of Guernsey. It tells the story of Gilliatt, a Guernsey fisherman who falls in love with the daughter of a local shipowner.
"It is only now being recognised as an important moment in the history of the novel".
"Victor Hugo" Graham Robb
Films on DVD and VHS
Film set in World War II starring Peter Sellers and Charles Aznavour about seven slave labourers who hide in an underground network of tunnels, get sealed in and are not discovered for years. Filmed on location in a German bunker in Guernsey. A little-known film, with Sellers in a straight role.
Guernsey Society publications
in conjunction with
Over the years, the Guernsey Society has published a number of classic reference works on Guernsey. These are now out-of-print, but in conjunction with abebooks.com, many of them are now available second hand.
electronic & online books
The Man Who Loved Islands by DH Lawrence
A short story written by DH Lawrence that Compton McKenzie was convinced was an attack on him.
