Every now and again, a book comes along that is simple yet effective, readable yet memorable. This is one such delight: a charming epistolary novel about the wartime German occupation of Guernsey that is cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish.

It begins in literary London shortly after the end of the Second World War. There is rationing, there is sadness - and there are impeccable manners. The voice of Miss Juliet Ashton, the central protagonist, is the first to draw us in, breezy and erudite and shot through with intelligent humour. Her first letter, to her “darling” publisher Sidney, is crisp and to the point. It plun-ges the reader into a nostalgic world of neat-waisted moral fibre, of love and loyalty and emotional reserve - in short, all the qualities that too often feel lost to this modern age.

It's a fantasy, of course, but a compelling one. There may be rubble, there may be horror, but through Shaffer's gentle pen the modern reader sees only honour and camaraderie in these charming, almost comforting postwar characters.

Juliet, it transpires, is famous: the author of a series of morale-boosting columns in the Spectator magazine entitled “Izzy Bickerstaff Goes to War”. Now that the war is over and Izzy is once again Jul- iet, she is seeking pastures new. Her prayers are answered in the form of a letter from one Dawsey Adams of Guernsey. He writes to introduce himself, not as a fan, but because he has a book by Charles Lamb that once belonged to Juliet. And so a friendship is born.

Through Dawsey, Juliet is introduced to a host of other island characters. They all have stories to tell: acts of bravery, folly, love and occasionally treachery. All, inevitably, have had the direction of their lives forever altered by war. Other voices mingle: Juliet's distracting London suitor; her best friend Sophie.

This is one of the great joys of this book: for all the different personalities, each one is clearly identifiable, crystal clear, individually significant. The gentleness with which Shaffer handles her creations is touching and, for a novel about war, unusually feminine. This is conflict seen through the eyes of mothers, grandparents, friends and lovers. It is a uniquely humane vision of inhumanity; one to lift even the most cynical of spirits.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
Bloomsbury, £12.99 Buy the book here

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