Family Collaboration Yields Charming Tale

Annie Barrows lives in Northern California with her husband and two daughters. She is currently working on a new novel for adults and a seventh Ivy and Bean book for kids. Her aunt Mary Ann Shaffer, who passed away in February 2008, worked as an editor, as a librarian, and in bookstores. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society was her first novel.

As she was growing up, Annie Barrows shared a passion for storytelling and books with her aunt, Mary Ann Shaffer. They even worked in the same library, Annie downstairs in the children’s section and Mary Ann upstairs in the adult fiction section. 

“I come from a family of incessant, inevitable storytellers. No one gives a straight answer in my family,” said Barrows.

Despite their closeness, she never dreamed she and her aunt would collaborate on a work of fiction one day, much less a story that would gain wide popularity and critical praise. 

Barrows had been an editor, author of several nonfiction books and penned children’s books, including the acclaimed Ivy + Bean children’s series, when Shaffer, who was ill, approached her for help in completing The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

The book had already been purchased by Dial, after several publishing houses expressed an interest.  

“Of course I said yes because it was Aunt Mary Ann and I loved her. Inside I was thinking, oh my God, how will I write in another voice.” said Barrows.

When she started work on the revisions Barrows realized that she had grown up with her aunt’s storytelling and knew her voice and how she would conceive of the characters.

The origin of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society is a story in and of itself. Shaffer went to Guernsey on a whim during a trip to London. She was stuck in the airport there when fog enshrouded the island.  She came across a number of books in the airport bookstore on the German occupation of the Channel Islands during World War II and passed her time reading and warming up under the hand-dryer in men’s restroom.

“Mary Ann was one of the world’s greatest storytellers. She spent about 36 hours on the island all together, much of it in the airport. She didn’t see the German Occupation Museum or the German Military Underground Hospital.  The story sprang from the 20 years of research she did following the visit,” said Barrows.

The result is a story told in letters populated by strong characters, including a woman writer from London and several eccentric islanders. 

“Aunt Mary Ann very cleverly used her own experience with small town life and popped it onto an island. Jane Austen talked about small towns, the contained universe of these people all with relationships to each other, as a great breeding ground for stories,” said Barrows.

She noted that while her aunt had no problem coming up with story ideas she was plagued, as many writers are, with doubt and self criticism that sometimes kept her from following through on those ideas.

Once Mary Ann had produced the beginnings of the book, her writing group goaded her on, urged her and cajoled her to finish it.”

The book was finished and sold when Shaffer fell ill. The book’s editor had requested changes that required substantial rewriting. Shaffer turned to her niece for assistance. Barrows worked on the book from January to November 2007. She took out some of the letters, rearranged others, and added some to provide more perspective and background on the origins of the literary society and the challenges the members faced.

Barrows read all the books her aunt had collected on Guernsey. Armed with a fishing map, a 1932 surveyor map, and the Guernsey weather cam, she sought to get a better sense of the island’s history and geography.

“I needed to know if there was a road that would take my character to the cliff and what German soldiers wore on their heads,” said Barrows.

She found the characters “a joy” to write.  Her greatest challenge was mastering British lingo from the 1940s. She used the Oxford English Dictionary for assistance. 

She brought the experience of having edited hundreds of books to the job. She also had a broad writing background that included nonfiction books on opera, divination and urban legends, as well as writing books for children.

My work as an editor taught me that there is no mystery to writing. I don’t feel locked into one genre. There isn’t just one way to be a writer. Following your interests and where your heart lies is the key to being happy,” said Barrows.

She said that for her, story begins with character and grows out of the shifts in personality brought on by events in the story.

She believes the success of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society comes from the book’s charm. “People are interested in having these characters speak to them.”

She urges new writers to immerse themselves in writing. “If your only goal is to be published you will probably be doomed to despair. Writing needs to be an end of its own.”

When it comes to breaking into the business it doesn’t hurt to have a connection on the inside. Barrows’ books for children are published by her former employer Chronicle Books.

With The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society out in paperback and her book tour complete, Barrows is working on her first adult novel. The story centers on a writer from a federal history project who comes to a small town.

“They don’t like her attitude and tell her lies. This book is about what happens when she finds out they are lies.”

Ellen Birkett Morris is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in national print and online publications including The New York Times. She also writes for a number of literary, regional, trade, and business publications, and she has contributed to six published nonfiction books in the trade press. Ellen is a regular contributor to Authorlink, assigned to interview various New York Times bestselling authors and first-time novelists.