After the Chimes Are Silent

Bernard Blestel now offers his second book about the offshore British island of Guernsey in the Channel Islands. In this book he outlines the life of Rachel Sarre, a descendant of long-time farmers in Guernsey, who lived her whole life on the family property in Guernsey. As a young woman she had a suitor from as far away as Yakandandah in Victoria, Australia, and later in life another suitor, a lawyer from Melbourne, Australia. In between these two events came the German Occupation of the island of Guernsey in World War II. It was during this time she fell in love and had her only child, John. Many events during this stressful time are chronicled in the book including how the islanders coped with the rationing of food, petrol and cars, the use of German slave labourers imported from Europe, smuggler’s tunnels and trapdoors in floors, floodlights on the cliffs searching for escapees, submarines depositing English spies to the shores, and the underlying resistance deployed by the islanders against their oppressors as well as the inhabitants’ tales of folklore.