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glad of the work but will be happy to be working on my land soon.
    It is nice to come home in the evening and find a letter from you.
    I wish you good fortune in finding a subject you would care to write a book about.
    Yours sincerely,
    Dawsey Adams
    From Amelia Maugery to Juliet
8th February 1946
    Dear Miss Ashton,
    Dawsey Adams has just been to visit. I have never seen him as pleased with anything as he is with your gift and letter. He was so busy convincing me to write to you by the next post that he forgot to be shy. I don’t believe he is aware of it, but Dawsey has a rare gift for persuasion—he never asks for anything for himself, so everyone is eager to do what he asks for others.
    He told me of your proposed article and asked if I would write to you about the literary society we formed during—and because of—the German Occupation. I will be happy to do so, but with a caveat.
    A friend from England sent me a copy of
Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War
. We had no news from the outside world for five years, so you can imagine how satisfying it was to learn how England endured those years herself. Your book was as informative as it was entertaining and amusing—but it is the amusing tone I must quibble with.
    I realise that our name, the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, is an unusual one and could easily be subjected to ridicule. Would you assure me you will not be tempted to do so? The Society members are very dear to me, and I do not wish them to be perceived as objects of fun by your readers.
    Would you be willing to tell me of your intentions for the article and also something of yourself? If you can appreciate the import of my questions, I should be glad to tell you about the Society. I hope I shall hear from you soon.
    Yours sincerely,
    Amelia Maugery
    From Juliet to Amelia
Mrs Amelia Maugery
Windcross Manor
La Bouvée
St Martin’s, Guernsey
    10th February 1946
    Dear Mrs Maugery,
    Thank you for your letter. I am very glad to answer your questions.
    I did make fun of many wartime situations; the
Spectator
felt a light approach to the bad news would serve as an antidoteand that humour would help to raise London’s low morale. I am very glad
Izzy
served that purpose, but the need to be humorous against the odds is—thank goodness—over. I would never make fun of anyone who loved reading. Nor of Mr Adams—I was glad to learn one of my books fell into such hands as his.
    Since you should know something about me, I have asked the Reverend Simon Simpless, of St Hilda’s Church near Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, to write to you. He has known me since I was a child and is fond of me. I have asked Lady Bella Taunton to provide a reference for me too. We were fire wardens together during the Blitz and she wholeheartedly dislikes me. Between the two of them, you may get a fair picture of my character.
    I am enclosing a copy of a biography I wrote of Anne Brontë, so you can see that I am capable of a different kind of work. It didn’t sell very well—in fact, not at all, but I am much prouder of it than I am of
Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War
.
    If there is anything else I can do to assure you of my good will, I will be glad to do so.
    Yours sincerely,
    Juliet Ashton
    From Juliet to Sophie
12th February 1946
    Dearest Sophie,
    Markham V. Reynolds, he of the camellias, has finally materialised. Introduced himself, paid me compliments, and invited me out to dinner—Claridge’s, no less. I accepted regally—Claridge’s, oh yes, I
have
heard of Claridge’s—andthen spent the next three days fretting about my hair. It’s lucky I have my lovely new dress, so I didn’t have to waste precious fretting time on what to wear.
    As Madame Helena said, ‘The hairs, they are a disaster.’ I tried a French roll; it fell down. A bun; it fell down. I was on the verge of tying an enormous red velvet bow on the top of my head when my neighbour