Books To Read Before You Visit The Channel Islands

When I visited Guernsey and Jersey I started looking for books about the Channel Islands, a small group of islands in the English Channel between England and France. What I found was a large number of books about the islands’ role in World War II, and not so much about the islands themselves or other periods of history. But if you look hard enough you’ll find plenty of books to read before you visit the Channel Islands…

Note that some of the titles listed are out of print, but should be available from libraries.

Channel Islands Guidebooks

I could find surprisingly few guidebooks for the Channel Islands. However there is the Channel Islands Marco Polo Pocket Guide (with a pullout map), or the Insight Guide, with lots of lavish pictures but perhaps less basic information. Berlitz has pocket guides to Guernsey (which also mentions the islands of Sark, Alderney and Herm), and Jersey.

Secret Guernsey by Amanda Bennett is a more quirky guide to island culture. And walkers can enjoy walking guides from Cicerone – choose from Jersey or Guernsey (including Alderney, Sark and Herm).

History And Memoirs

There are very few general histories of the islands as a whole – most books focus either on the wartime occupation of the Channel Islands, or upon the individual islands. For individual island histories try Peter Johnston’s A Short History of Guernsey (6^th ed, 2014) and Belleine’s History of Jersey by Marguerite Syvret (2011). A classic wartime history is The Channel Islands at War by Robert Bard (2014).

If you are visiting Jersey don’t miss Menagerie Manor by the naturalist Gerald Durrell (1964), a memoir of his quest to establish a zoo on the island (you can still visit the zoo today). A Doctor’s Occupation by John Lewis is a firsthand account of a doctor’s life in Jersey during the German occupation.

Another intriguing memoir is Dame of Sark: An Autobiography by Sibyl Hathaway (1961) – it is out of print but worth a read if you can find a copy. Hathaway was the ruler of the tiny privately owned island of Sark from 1927 to 1974 and the book is an extraordinary account of a modern feudal society.

Novels Set In The Channel Islands

Most of the novels on this list are based in Guernsey – I’m not sure why it should be more popular with writers than the other islands.

• The novelist Victor Hugo lived on Guernsey during his exile from France, and you can still visit his home at Hauteville House in St Peter Port. His novel Toilers of the Sea (originally published as Les Travailleurs de la Mer) takes place in the early 19^th century and looks at the effect of the Industrial Revolution upon the island.
• The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G B Edwards (1981) is a fictionalised authobiography of a Guernsey countryman from the late 19^th century to the 1960s, a time of substantial social change.
• Island Song by Madeleine Bunting (2019) is a multi-layered novel of art theft, family secrets, and living under the German occupation, set in present-day England and wartime Guernsey.
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows (2008) probably needs no introduction to most readers. Told through the medium of letters, it is a heartwarming story about Juliet Ashton, a writer who visits Guernsey soon after the war, joins a book group, and falls in love.
• A recent wartime novel set on Jersey is The Girl from the Channel Islands by Jenny Lecoat (2020, also published as Hedy’s War). This is a retelling of the real life story of Hedy Bercu, a Jewish woman who faked her own death and was sheltered at great risk to herself by Dorothea le Brocq.
• A classic detective novel is Last Ditch by Ngaio Marsh (1977), which is concerned with drug smuggling in the Channel Islands.
• Another detective novelist is Lara Dearman. Her first novel Devil’s Claw (2017) is set in Guernsey, and her second title Dark Sky Island (2020) is based on Sark.
• A Place of Hiding by Elizabeth George (2009) is part of her Inspector Lynley series, and takes place on Guernsey.
• Island Madness by Tim Binding (1998) is a thriller set in Guernsey during the Second World War.
• Night of the Fox by Jack Higgins (1986) is a spy thriller based on Jersey during the war.
• And if you have a taste of the fantastical, try Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake (1953), a mystical novel in which the crusading Mr Pye travels to Sark.

Children’s Books

Children’s books based in the Channel Islands were particularly hard to find, but I managed to come up with a few:

• Young children may like the Tales of Teddy Typhoon picture books – Tower Island and The Dirty Old Tub – by Alistair Macrae.
• Based on a number of true stories, A Cake For The Gestapo by Jacqueline King (2020) is the fictional account of a gang of children during wartime Jersey.
• We Couldn’t Leave Dinah by Mary Treadgold (1941), set on a fictional island in the Channel, is about a pony club during the Second World War.
• La Société Jersiaise has published a number of children’s history books with titles like Jersey’s Sailors and Pirates, or Jersey Long Ago.

As always, if you have any more titles to add to this list, I’d love to hear from you.

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