Small islands make for small lives, or so some might believe. But Ebenezer le Page, recounting his eighty years on the tiny Channel Island of Guernsey, proves himself as wise in the ways of the world as any cosmopolitan. Born into the final years of a nineteenth century reluctant to loosen its grasp on Guernsey, Ebenezer witnesses the island's occupation by Nazis during World War II and mourns its gradual transformation into a fossilized tourist attraction as the twentieth century progresses. In captivating patois-inflected language Ebenezer provides a history, not only of a unique place, but of the those who live there: the ever-feuding Le Page family, Jim, a gentle soul who is his closest friend, and Eliza, the independent-minded spitfire who breaks his heart. Through it all he puts "his famous Ebenezer twist on everything" which one character declares may be "cock-eyed, but it puts me straight."

G. B. Edwards (1899—1976) was born on the British Island of Guernsey. A professor of drama and literature at Toynbee Hall, his friends included Middleton Murray, J.S. Collis, and Stephen Potter. Though full of promise, he published only a handful of articles. Encouraged by Edward Chaney to create a trilogy of novels on island life, he completed only one, The Book of Ebenezer Le Page.

John Fowles (1926—2005) was born in Leigh-on-Sea, in the south-east of England, and educated at Oxford. His best-known novels are The French Lieutenant's Woman and The Magus.