ABOUT
THE BOOK

It is 1943, and the German army has been defeated at Stalingrad. The Russians have taken 91,000 prisoners; 145,000 German soldiers have been killed. The tide is beginning to turn. But on Guernsey and the rest of the Channel Islands, the only British territory to have been occupied by German troops, such a reversal is unimaginable. Here in idyllic surroundings, the reality of war seems a lifetime away. While resentment runs high, life goes on, parties are held, love affairs blossom and the Guernsey Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society stages productions of Private Lives, Babes in the Wood and Peter Pan – albeit with suspiciously jackbooted pirates. But when a young local woman is found murdered, both the islanders and the Occupiers come to realise that this idyll cannot last. As food becomes scarce, and the war turns sour, island madness begins to grip them all.
Tim Binding was born in Germany in 1947.