Reading Group Guide
Every book should have its own Book Club Kit to enable its readers to get the most out of it, but that’s doubly true of a novel about a book club! So it’s my great pleasure to share this with you and your book club. I hope you find something useful in it.
Kate x
1. The Wartime Book Club is set during the Occupation of Jersey in World War II. They might not have had to contend with the Blitz, but they were forced to live alongside the enemy for five years. How do you think you would have coped living under the Occupation and can you see yourself landing in hot water with the German authorities?
2. Book censorship is one of the themes of the novel and I chose to start each chapter with details of a book banned by the Nazis. What is the effect of this and why do you think book censorship is on the rise once more?
3. The Occupation was a quagmire, presenting islanders with impossible moral dilemmas. The staff at Jersey Post Office found themselves in a position that would have been unthinkable before the war, steaming open letters instead of delivering them. Discuss the rights and wrongs of this. What would you have done in their situation?
4. I try to highlight “hidden histories” of women whose stories are rarely discussed. Why do you think working-class women’s social histories get overlooked?
5. Grace and Bea are close friends despite being very different from one another. Discuss their different attitudes toward risk and the ways in which they are similar.
6. I set the Epilogue during the anniversary of Liberation Day and we see an elderly Bea finally reveal her stash of stolen German letters. Discuss why you think she waited all those years. How do you interpret the following phrase: The need to share overcomes the desire to forget?
7. Reading was the only true form of joy and solace, the only intellectual freedom they still possessed. Discuss the importance of books to the war-weary book club.
8. If your book club was banned like Grace’s, do you think you would continue and how would you find ways to carry on sharing your love of reading?