Appointment With Venus
"What a treasure! What a find! Like an especially beautiful time-travel device, Appointment with Venus took me back to the Channel Islands during World War II, where I revelled in every character (even the bovine ones) and every twist of fate that befell them." Annie Barrows, co-author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“Appointment with Venus is one of best books written to show what might have happened if Britain had been occupied, as much for what is glossed over and romanticised as included. I strongly recommend a read.” Anne Sebba, New York Times bestselling biographer and author of The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz, Les Parisiennes and Ethel Rosenberg.
It is 1940. The world is at war and all that stands between England and Nazi-occupied Europe is the tiny (fictitious) Channel Island of Armorel, controlled by the Nazis but still home to loyal villagers, a pacifist painter … and a pedigree Guernsey cow named Venus.
This hugely entertaining wartime classic, published in a beautiful gift hardback edition, is introduced by Rosa Rankin-Gee, author of the debut novel The Last Kings of Sark and the bestselling Dreamland (currently in adaptation as a 6-part TV series for the BBC)
Rosa Rankin-Gee was 23 when she left university and spent the summer on Sark, working as a private cook. 'The Last Kings of Sark', the novella she wrote set on the island, went on to win Shakespeare & Company's international Paris Literary Prize, and was published by Virago in 2013, with a brand new edition published by Scribner in 2022. Her writing has been described as "a cross between Francoise Sagan and Nell Dunn" (Marie Claire) and "Enthralling... Blazing bright" (The Guardian); her work has appeared in The Guardian, Esquire, Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, The Paris Review and The New Yorker. Rosa lives between London and the Kentish seaside.
Edward Bawden (1903-89) was a master painter, illustrator and graphic artist, known for his prints, book covers, posters, murals, linocuts, watercolours and wallpaper designs. He taught at the Royal College of Art (where he had also been a student), worked as a commercial artist and served as a war artist during the Second World War. Bawden's distinctive style was defined by his interest in unusual details, bold patterns and witty designs. Inspired by a love of reading and gardening, a broad knowledge of history and a strong sense of place, Bawden is one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century