The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society

The Channel Islands were the only part of the British Isles occupied by Germany, from 30 June 1940 until 9 May 1945. Before the Germans arrived, many Guernsey children were evacuated to England, often without their parents. Islanders lived under curfew and requisitions, British-born residents were deported to camps in Germany in 1942, and forced labourers of the Organisation Todt built fortifications across the island.

Cut off from France after D-Day, Guernsey came close to starvation in the winter of 1944 to 1945 until the Red Cross ship Vega brought food parcels. The book club and its members come from Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows's novel; the film was shot mostly in Devon and Cornwall rather than on Guernsey.