The Book of Ebenezer Le Page by G.B. Edwards: book review

The Book of Ebenezer Le Page (1981, published posthumously, this version 2007) by Gerald Basil Edwards (1899-1976) is set in the twentieth century on Guernsey, an island in the Channel Islands between the coasts of England and France.

The narrator Ebenezer Le Page of Les Moulins, and his sister Tabitha (La Tabby), live on the island of Guernsey (sometimes called Sarnia). Half the people on the island are his cousins, and the cousins of his cousins. He is 80 years old, never married, never had a sick day in his life, and never left the island, because ‘I knew I would only end up where I begun.’

He doesn’t have any regrets in life, except that he wished he was taller. He commences with the everyday lives of the islanders: schooling, work, marriage, deaths, farming, fishing. He’s forgotten a lot, but thinks ‘it’s funny how when you remember you can’t choose what it is you remember.’

Then war came to Guernsey. ‘The War didn’t make a lot of difference to Guernsey at first.’ He lived through two world wars: ‘Two is one too many for any man.’

He writes about Blanche the chocolate girl; Liza, the girl he really liked, but she was always dating other men, mainly officers; and Ada, Christine, Louisa, and Rita. He writes of his friends who died in the Great War and those who had lifelong injuries. He writes of his anger, and that people didn’t understand him. Worse than the Great War was the German Occupation of Guernsey during World War II. Yet it was the English Occupation on 9 May 1945 that ‘broke’ the people’s spirit, when Guernsey ‘took the wrong turning.’ And he’s not too happy with all the tourism!

For a grumpy, opinionated old man, Ebenezer Le Page is a true Guernseyman, in love with his island and its people.

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