New local books raise funds for the Priaulx Library

From French spies to planting parsnips, from aristocrats fleeing the French Revolution to privateers, from farmhands to tailoresses, with his wigs and coats and shoes and cider, surrounded by his gardens and orchards, Charles Mollet in his estate at Woodlands in the Catel lived the life of a typical well-off Guernseyman in the late 18th-century. He had friends and guests of all sorts, but with no wife or children he was lonely. He kept a journal, written in French, for most of his life, full of local detail. The Priaulx Library was given Mollet's Journal in 1951, a precious gift that has now been translated by well-known local historian Rose-Marie Crossan (Migration, Criminal Justice, Women, Poverty & Welfare in Guernsey) and published as two separate books. One features selections from the journals, while the other is a very readable survey of the historical information about Georgian Guernsey that can be gleaned from the diaries' contents. 'The Journal of Charles Mollet' and 'Charles Mollet and his world' are available to buy from the Priaulx Library and Blue Ormer Books. The author is very generously giving all profits to the Priaulx Library