The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

Isola believes that now that she and Juliet are acquainted, she can ask highly personal questions of her new friend. Juliet answers all of her questions about her appearance. She describes her new living arrangements and how she lost most of her possessions when her old flat by the Thames was destroyed during the London bombings. The only item she recovered from the remains was a paperweight with the engraving Carpe Diem that belonged to her father. She also tells Isola about her childhood: how distraught she was at losing her parents, how much trouble she caused for the great-uncle who took her in, and how she met and befriended Sophie Stark at boarding school when she was trying to run away. She then tells Isola that she began writing because of an essay contest on the topic of what women fear the most. (In her own experience, the answer is chickens.) After that, she became a regular writer for feature stories, and when the war broke out, she took on the pseudonym Izzy Bickerstaff. She tells Isola briefly about having a suitor, but she still thinks she prefers the men she finds in books. She confirms that she wants to meet Isola and her friends in Guernsey.

Eli sends a thank-you note to Juliet for the wood she sent him and promises to carve her an animal from it. His grandfather Eben sends a letter the next day to thank her as well and to answer her questions about the evacuation before the Occupation. He explains that most citizens thought the islands were too insignificant to be affected by the war. They did not anticipate the sacrifices they would need to make. Once Hitler claimed the French coast, however, it became evident the islands would be next, and an arrangement was made for the children to be evacuated in the middle of June. Islanders had only a few days to decide whether to participate in the evacuation and though not all of them sent their children to the mainland, many did. They were dropped off at the school, said their goodbyes to their families, and went to the pier. Since Jane was too pregnant to make the crossing, Eli said goodbye to his mother in the hospital before leaving. Eben also notes that during the evacuation, Elizabeth was reported to have smacked Adelaide Addison in the face.

Juliet telegrams Isola to confirm whether this is true, and Isola sends her a letter with more details. Adelaide had arrived at the school and begun to rile up the children by ordering them to pray for their remaining parents and to be good so that if their parents died, they could look down from heaven and approve of them. Elizabeth confronted her for upsetting the children, and when Adelaide would not stop speaking what she considered to be the “word of God,” Elizabeth hit her, shoved her out of the school, and locked the door. Isola then asks for Juliet’s essay about chickens.

Dawsey writes to Juliet about Kit’s childhood and general personality. Though her external features do not resemble her mother’s, she is fierce like Elizabeth. Dawsey tells her that he and Amelia told Kit her father had died but kept Elizabeth’s forced departure open-ended, as they could not be sure she would not come back. Sir Ambrose, Elizabeth’s surrogate father, however, had died in one of the bombings, and his solicitors are now actively looking for Elizabeth since she is the heir to his estate. Dawsey hopes that the solicitors have better means to find her than her friends do.

Juliet and Mark arrange to meet on April 30. When they meet, Mark proposes. Juliet does not immediately accept because they have only known each other for two months, and she believes she does not know him well enough to marry him. She assures him, however, that Sidney is not a contender for her hand in marriage. Juliet then turns to Sophie for advice and explains the impromptu marriage proposal as well as the reasoning behind her hesitancy. She compares Mark to Ransom, a character in The Master of Blackheath, but while Mark is as charming and magnetic as Ransom, she does not see herself as Eulalie, the damsel to his hero. She is more certain of her desire to go to Guernsey than she is of marrying him. She turns to Sidney for advice and asks for his blessing for a trip to Guernsey to find out more about the islanders’ experience during the Occupation. Sidney wholeheartedly supports her plan to go to Guernsey, but questions if Mark will allow it. In response, Juliet reminds Sidney that Mark is not in a position to forbid or allow anything.

In her correspondence with Juliet, Amelia happily receives the news that Juliet is considering a visit to Guernsey and tells her the other Society members are banding together to prepare for her trip. Isola takes charge of the arrangements and asks Mr. Dilwyn to rent out Elizabeth’s old cottage to Juliet. Amelia also informs Juliet of new findings about Elizabeth: Though she was bound for Germany, she never made it. The only evidence they found indicates that she was left in France. Amelia confesses that she cannot contact Christian’s family about Kit, as she does not trust his extended family to share the sentiments and values he once held. Elizabeth had also kept Kit’s paternity a secret for fear of having her child sent to Germany and raised there. A copy of Juliet’s Times article has made its way to the Society and Amelia reports that all members have read it, pleased with its content.

As Isola prepares the cottage for Julia, she sends her a letter explaining that she has recruited other people at the market to send Juliet letters about their experiences. She includes an anecdote about the first time she had seen German soldiers in Guernsey. She and Elizabeth had decided to confront the soldiers in town, but when they arrived, they found the men shopping. It became clear that the soldiers thought their stay in Guernsey was akin to a holiday before being deployed to England. Elsewhere on the island, however, she, Elizabeth, and Mr. Ferre—an islander who had fought in the Somme—watched in horror as the German soldiers did military drills. In the end, Isola asks Juliet to wear a big red hat so she can easily identify her on the boat.

Juliet receives several letters thanks to Isola’s efforts. One is from an anonymous Society member who explains how the island administration put most of the livestock to sleep before the Occupation.

Another is from Sally Ann Frobisher, a child who had had persistent scabies during the Occupation and had to be brought to the Town Hospital. While there, she met Elizabeth, who was tasked with cutting off the tops of her scabs. Elizabeth alleviated the situation by making it into a game to make Sally Ann laugh, giving her a silk scarf to wrap around her head after she finished. Elizabeth told her that one day she would be the new Nefertiti.

Juliet receives a third letter, this one from Micah Daniels, who tells her about the arrival of the Red Cross ship SS Vega in December 1944 with much-needed food supplies. Churchill had wanted to starve the German soldiers out, and as a result, the citizens starved as well. Eventually, Churchill relented, and Micah notes that while the German soldiers helped unload the boxes, they took none of it for themselves. Instead, they lived off the scraps they could find.

John Booker sends Juliet another letter, detailing how he was exposed as an impersonator by an islander named Lisa Jenkins. She had come across a photo of the real Lord Tobias Penn-Piers in a magazine and had informed a German sergeant whom she dated. Booker explains that he was then shipped to a labor camp in Neuengamme, where he would clear out unexploded bombs during air raids. For one year, he did not feel like he was living and could not bring himself to think of things he loved because it would overwhelm him with grief. He was then transferred to the Belsen concentration camp and made to dig mass graves for the dead bodies, as the crematoriums could not burn them fast enough. They were eventually liberated by the British, and Belsen was burned to the ground a month later and then turned into a war refugee center. He also recounts a time during the Occupation when communication was completely cut off and the German radio said London had been destroyed. When he and Elizabeth walked by the house of German officers one night, however, they overheard a reporter from the BBC in London. He and Elizabeth hugged and waltzed together—a memory that was too painful to recall when he was in Neuengamme.

Dawsey writes to Juliet that everything is ready for her arrival and that the Society members are excited to meet her. In response, Juliet gives Dawsey her arrival time and asks that he relay to Isola that she will be wearing a red wool cape. Mark writes to Juliet to tell her he will not allow her to go to Guernsey for an indeterminate amount of time, especially as she still has not given him an answer to his marriage proposal. He tries to convince her, but Juliet remains steadfast and reminds him that he cannot stop her from leaving. He offers to drive her to Weymouth, and though he promises not to lecture her, he tells her he will employ all other forms of persuasion to keep her from leaving.