Kirjahaku

The Latest version of Rachel's Shoe Nestled in the bay of St Malo, the Channel Islands claim the unique, if unenviable distinction of being the only part of Britain to have been occupied by a foreign power in hundreds of years. Life in the islands during the five years under the Jackboot was hard and freedoms severely curtailed, but the spirit of a teenage Guernsey boy called Tom Le Breton was never dampened. This is the story of a dramatic wartime rescue and the romance that grew between Tom and a young Jewish girl imprisoned on the nearby island of Alderney. The story moves from those dangerous but somehow magical days to the heady 1970s when long-since forgotten events return to haunt a small family now settled on the Western coast of Guernsey. Impregnated with the atmosphere of remote islands and their unique history, Rachel's Shoe is an adventure story about the survival of innocence in a world dominated by obsessions for power and wealth.

From the early 1400s to the 21st century, the island of Guernsey was a microcosm of society edging its way from feudalism towards democracy. During those 500 years, the Lihou family worked and lived on the island and their story is woven into many of the great events that have shaped, not just the island, but the wider world. Sixteen generations of the Lihou family span the half-millennium of this story and with each generation, a unique view of the society and context of their everyday lives unfolds. Where historical records have established the facts, as with Parish registers, they have been included. Oral history, books and reports have also provided much of the historical detail. But where no such records exist, conjecture has been used to create a possible version of events, which affords a rare glimpse into the lives of our ancestors.