1940: When the island of Guernsey is invaded by the Nazis, two sisters are determined to rebel in any way they can. But when forced to take in a German soldier, they are shocked to find a familiar face on their doorstep – a childhood friend who has now become their enemy. 2016: Two generations later, Lucy returns to Guernsey after […]
The Occupation by Deborah Swift
1940, Jersey. When Nazi forces occupy Jersey in the English Channel Islands, Céline Huber, who is married to a German, must decide where her loyalty lies. Love for her island, and fear for her Jewish friend Rachel, soon propel her into a dangerous double life. Meanwhile, Céline’s husband Fred is conscripted into the Wehrmacht in […]
Review: When the Germans Came by Duncan Barrett
The occupation of the British Channel Islands from June 1940 to May 1945 rarely features in the popular narrative of the Second World War nor has it, for the most part, captured the attention of writers, Mary Chamberlain tells Historia in her review of Duncan Barrett’s When the Germans Came, the paperback reprint of his 2018 account, Hitler’s British Isles.
When the Germans Came by Duncan Barrett
When the Germans Came by Duncan Barrett is the story of the Channel Islands during the war is the history that could so nearly have come to pass for the rest of us. Based on interviews with over 100 islanders who lived through it, this book tells that story from beginning to end.
Writing popular history: Three lessons learned
“Read everything you can. Get to know the place you’re writing about. Know when to stop researching and start writing,” historian and author Eric Lee recommends. “Those are three of the lessons I have learned in the last quarter century as a writer of popular history.” My first book was an oral history of the […]
Alderney Literary Festival 2017
Anna Mazzola reports from the Alderney Literary Festival 2017 Alderney, the northernmost of the inhabited Channel Islands, has blonde hedgehogs, about two thousand inhabitants, and numerous fortifications. It also has a history and literature festival. Every March, a group of historians, biographers and historical fiction writers are invited to attend the festival to throw fresh […]