Release Details
The book was published by Hamish Hamilton 1981, followed by Penguin and Knopf in America the following year. It had been the subject of numerous rejections during his lifetime, but attempts to get it published were continued after his death in 1976 by Edward Chaney, who had befriended the author in his old age.
Christopher Sinclair Stevenson asked John Fowles to write an introduction which no doubt helped drawn attention to the publication. The novel was originally intended to form the first part of a trilogy, entitled Sarnia Cherie: The Book of Ebenezer Le Page. Sarnia Cherie refers to the Guernsey anthem, and was retained in the title of the French translation. The other two books were to be called Le Boud'lo: the Book of Philip Le Moigne and La Gran'-mère du Chimquière: the Book of Jean le Féniant. A draft of the second part was destroyed by the author before his death.
For more details of the author, Gerald B Edwards, and how Edward Chaney eventually managed to get his Book published, see Chaney's series of three articles in the Review of the Guernsey Society (1994–96). See also his foreword on 'The Cultural Memory of Guernsey' to Yvonne Ozanne's Love Apples Too: A Life in the Bailiwick of Guernsey (2009).
It has been translated into French by Jeanine Hérisson, and was published in 1982 by Editions du Seuil under the title Sarnia.
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