Guernsey Walker
Guernsey Links and References
Guernsey WalkerGuernsey Links and References
Fast car ferry arrival at St Peter Port.
The "Visit Guernsey" web site, which includes the outlying islands of Alderney, Sark and Herm, can be found at http://www.visitguernsey.com/.
The Guernsey Airport web sites, which contain weather, tidal, airport and harbour information, among other things, can be found at http://www.guernsey-airport.gov.gg/
and http://www.metoffice.gov.gg/.
The Guernsey Weather and Earth Observation site, which contains comprehensive weather and weather related information, including an interesting ship plotter, can be found at http://www.gyweather.com/index.php.
The website of The National Trust of Guernsey can be found at http://www.nationaltrust-gsy.org.gg/
Although this web site is primarily about Guernsey walking, Guernsey is a great location for sailing and surfing, including wind and kite surfing. (Of course you need to be aware of the many rocks around our shores).
Guernsey sailing and surfing web sites include The Guernsey Yacht Club, The Guernsey Board Sailing Association, Guernsey Sailing Trust, and Guernsey Surf School. (If you have or know of any other site which you think should be included here, please advise me via the comments page.)
While the larger part of Saumarez Park has been open to the public for many years, the walled Victorian kitchen garden had been neglected and had fallen into disuse. In 2006 the Guernsey Botanical Trust was formed for the express purpose of restoring this garden, and the Trust's website can be found here.
This is only a few of the many books that have been written about Guernsey, or with plots set in Guernsey. They are ones that I have read and found interesting. So it's very much a personal selection.
Les Travailleurs de la Mer (The Toilers of the Sea), by Victor Hugo, published in 1866.
Guernsey is still proud of the remembrance that Victor Hugo chose to spend most of his years of exile from France in our island. Hugo arrived in Guernsey in 1855, buying a house in the town above St Peter Port harbour - Hauteville House - the following year, where he spent most of his time until 1870, with further visits until 1878.
Hauteville House is still maintained (by the City of Paris) and is open to visitors during the summer months (see the Paris web site or search the Visit Guernsey web site already mentioned above). There is also a fine stone statue of Hugo in Candie Gardens, showing him striding through the wind, hat and stick in hand, with his coat flying out behind him, and seemingly deep in thought.
Les Travailleurs de la Mer was written and published during Hugo's years in Guernsey, though it is set in about the 1820's or 30's, as Hugo tells us in the very first sentences of the book: "La Christmas de 182… fut remarquable à Guernesey. Il neigea ce jour-là."
One could perhaps say that the basic plot of the book is not exceptional, but such is the power of Hugo's prose and his genius as a writer, that he constructs from this a towering epic evoking love and loss, heroism and betrayal, and indeed man's impotence in the face of fate.
In the twenty-first century the book would quite probably have been written more concisely. Hugo never misses the opportunity for a digression. For example, before a great storm strikes Les Roches Douvres we get several pages about the horrors of storms at sea in general. There is also a certain amount of philosophising along the way. And some of the writing is perhaps a bit over the top. I am not personally convinced about the malevolence of la pieuvre (the octopus). In 60 years of swimming around Guernsey I have never had a personal encounter with a live specimen - and certainly not one four feet across! - and neither do I know anyone who has. Maybe though, if you stick your hand in his hole as Gilliat did, you might upset him a little!
While you will find many real places from the book in Guernsey, you will not find the location of Gilliat's house at Le Bû de la Rue. Indeed Houmet Paradis itself is an island at high tide, not a promontory, and neither will you find La chaise Gild-Holm-Ur. Much of the incidental descriptive detail of the island is though correct. I am not sure about Hugo's descriptions of Les Roches Douvres either. Though I've never been there, a reference in Wikipedia suggests that the reef is entirely covered at high tides. So it looks like Hugo must have fictionalised the rocks a little. None of this of course detracts from Hugo's great story. An interesting aerial photo of the present Douvres lighthouse can be found on the web site of St Aubin's Boat Owners Association which only emphasises the bleakness of the place.
But while the book is set in Guernsey (as well as St Malo and on Les Roches Douvres) it is not "really" about Guernsey - and not really about Guernsey people. Despite the conventional English translation of the title as "The Toilers of the Sea", you will not find here descriptions of specifically Guernsey fishermen or specifically Guernsey folk. Hugo's characters - and indeed his themes - are much more universal than this.
All in all this book is quite exceptional, certainly as a novel of the nineteenth century. It has some really great moments. And some really moving moments. You will have to discover these for yourself!
Victor Hugo aux Iles de la Manche / in the Channel Islands, by Gregory Stevens Cox
This short book has some fascinating photos of Victor Hugo, family, friends, Hauteville House, and other incidental material, together with an interesting text in both French and English, briefly describing Hugo's stay in the Channel Islands (mainly Guernsey) and a little background detail of his life and works. (Published 1996 by The Guernsey Press Co. Ltd., then 2010 by Toucan Press Guernsey).
The Book of Ebenezer Le Page, by G B Edwards, first published in 1981.
This book is an unlikely masterpiece, but masterpiece it is. Edwards grew up in Guernsey in the years up to the first world war and his novel says much about Guernsey and Guernsey people in the first three quarters of the twentieth century which has a truly authentic feel to it, as well as being emotionally stirring. Further information about this book can be found on Wikepedia and at www.guernsey-society.org.uk/ebenezer.htm
The Model Occupation: The Channel Islands Under German Rule 1940-45, by Madeleine Bunting, published in 1996.
This book caused something of a furore locally when it was published. The older generation who had lived through the German occupation found it derogatory and biased against the island people. As one who was born in 1946, I found it interesting and informative. Whether it is biased I cannot of course judge, though to me it seems to have a general ring of truth about it.
Island Madness, by Tim Binding, published in 1998
This is a novel set during the German occupation, and is a good fun read. The earlier chapters have a good authentic feel to them, though I found it went downhill a little towards the end where the final denouement became rather too racy for my taste.
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows, published in 2008
This is a quaint, rather whimsical novel based around Guernsey during the German occupation. The main protagonist is a rather scatty, middle class, London authoress, and the book consists of a collection of letters with and about a number of rather odd ball characters in Guernsey.
In my view the drawing of the Guernsey based characters is rather too stereotyped to be truly authentic. Nevertheless the format provides opportunities for much that is of interest, together with some gentle humour.
Despite its sombre subject matter this is very much a "feel good" book, and makes a pleasant, light-hearted read. The book gained something of a cult following, and if you've already read it and it's whetted your appetite for things Guernsey, you could do worse than follow it up with the above three books by G B Edwards, Madeleine Bunting and Tim Binding (probably in that order).