Book Review by Pat Allchorne: The Wartime Book Club by Kate Thompson
I took back to the library “Found in a Bookshop”, and told the staff there that I’d enjoyed it so much that I just had to do a review on it, and that I hadn’t intended getting a book out at all on that visit till I saw the word “bookshop” in the title. Anything about bookshops or books is guaranteed to catch my eye.
One of the staff disappeared and came back with this book; wartime, German occupation of Jersey, based on a true story – it was a no-brainer. It begins in 1940, when the Germans arrived on Jersey, but quickly jumps ahead to 1943. Grace is the librarian in St Helier, and in order to save books from burning she hides all the banned books in a secret store in the library. Each chapter begins with the title of a banned book and why the Germans banned it: it contains references to Jews (Oliver Twist), it is written by a gay man (At the Edge of the Night), it portrays Germans in an adverse light (All Quiet on the Western Front), and so on.
Grace knows the value of a good book to take you away from what is happening around you, and she keeps the library open with its depleted stock, delivering books on her bicycle all over the island. When her brother, Jimmy, is shot trying to escape to England with her best friend Bea, her life changes drastically. Bea Gold is a rebel, determined not to give in to German rule. She works for the Post Office, over which the Germans have no jurisdiction as they have their own postal system on the island. When she spots letters addressed to the German office, written from Jersey, she suspects that they are from people telling on their neighbours, and steams them open. Once she knows who is at risk, from having a hidden radio or possibly hiding a wanted person, she delays stamping the letter for posting till the person can be warned.
Roping in Grace, who is at first reluctant, she gets her to warn people at the same time as she delivers books. Things get more complicated when Grace discovers an American airman shot down and she hides him in the potting shed at the end of the garden. The complications arrive when her feelings for him begin to emerge against her better judgement.
When it is suggested to her that she form a book club in the library, where she can read aloud to people, it turns out to be more successful than she had anticipated. Helping her is Peter, an autistic teenager who is generally written off as simple, but who loves books and has an extraordinary memory.
Sergeant Wolfle of the Secret Field Police, known to the islanders as The Wolf, is determined to root out any resistance on Jersey, and makes it his personal mission to keep an eye on both Grace and Bea. The book club is only allowed if a German officer is present at each reading. Peter, whose home life is not the best, loves helping out at the library, and particularly loves the book readings, but when he doesn’t turn up for one and hasn’t been to the library for a couple of days the book group organise a search for him.
Two or three months after Jimmy was shot, Bea discovers she is pregnant. The complications escalate as Peter is captured by the Germans, it becomes harder for Bea to hide her pregnancy, Wolf takes her into custody, Grace falls in love with her American (who ends up captured due to the risks he takes to see Grace) and the Germans close the library.
Grace makes possibly the greatest sacrifice of her life to help Bea after the baby is born whilst she is in captivity. The courage of the islanders, the redeeming power of books to take us to another world when our own world is falling about us and the indomitability of the human spirit all shine through this book.
Kate Thompson has devoted about 70 pages at the end of the book to various notes, and there are pictures of some of the actual people in the story. Quite a few of the protagonists were real people, and although some liberties have been taken regarding the events, that doesn’t detract in any way from the heroism recorded.
ABOUT THE BOOK
From enchanting cliff tops and white sandy bays to the pretty cobbled streets of St Helier, Jersey is known as the land of milk and honey. But for best friends Bea Rose, the local postwoman, and Grace Le Motte, who works in the island's only library, it becomes the frontline to everyday resistance when their beloved island is occupied by German forces in 1940.
Inspired by astonishing true events, THE WARTIME BOOK CLUB is an unforgettable story of everyday bravery and resistance, full of romance, drama, and camaraderie and a tribute to the joy of reading and the power of books in our darkest hour.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR | WEBSITE
Kate Thompson was born in London and worked as a journalist for twenty years on women's magazines and national newspapers. She now lives in Sunbury with her husband, two sons and two rescue dogs. After ghost writing five memoirs, Kate moved into fiction.
Kate's first non-fiction social history documenting the forgotten histories of East End matriarchy, The Stepney Doorstep Society, was published in 2018 by Penguin. She is passionate about capturing lost voices and untold social histories.
Today Kate works as a journalist, author and library campaigner. Her most recent books, The Little Wartime Library (2022) and The Wartime Book Club (2023) by Hodder & Stoughton focus on two remarkable libraries in wartime. Her 100 libraries project, celebrates the richness and complexity of librarians work and the vital role of libraries in our communities.
Kate is also proud to have worked in collaboration with one of Britain's oldest Holocaust survivors, Renee Salt, to research and write, A mother's Promise (UK) Do Not Cry When I Die (US and Canada) to be published on the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Podcast host - From the Library With Love. Interviews with librarians, best-sellling authors and our remarkable wartime generation.