The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society

A writer in postwar London receives a letter from Guernsey and starts tracing an oddly named book club formed during the German occupation. The name itself came out of a lie: islanders caught breaking curfew told the soldiers they were on their way to a literary meeting. Mary Ann Shaffer fell ill before finishing the novel. Her niece Annie Barrows completed it and it was published in 2008. The film took a long road. Kenneth Branagh was attached to direct in 2011 and Kate Winslet joined in 2012; both left in February 2013. Mike Newell took over in February 2016 and Lily James was confirmed that October. Not a frame was shot on Guernsey. Filming ran across England from March to May 2017, with the village of Clovelly in North Devon standing in for Saint Peter Port. It opened in UK cinemas in April 2018, Netflix took international rights and released it on 10 August 2018, and it grossed 23 million dollars worldwide. Who it is for: viewers who like period drama and epistolary storytelling. Who it is not for: anyone expecting the occupation to bite. The film softens that considerably and chooses comfort instead.