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Searching for 'The Guernseyman' (An extract from the BBC Radio Guernsey website)

Harry Brown wrote The Guernseyman following the Occupation Just after the Occupation many evacuees returned to Guernsey, one of them was a 19-year-old with aspirations to be a journalist - Harry Brown. To further his ambitions he put together a regular magazine called The Guernseyman. In November 2009 his daughter Marilyn Chapman, who now lives in the UK began searching for a copy to help with a book she was writing. In June 2010 Marilyn visited the island to see some copies. During the Occupation Harry was sent to the north of England and as a teenager got a taste for journalism working in Manchester. Marilyn said that on his return to Guernsey, aged 19: "He worked in the tax office and got very frustrated so he decided to start a magazine, which he called The Guernseyman." After writing the magazine for more than a year Harry was offered a job with The Guernsey Star, a local newspaper at the time in competition with The Press, where he worked until the paper folded in the 1960s. Marilyn had not seen a copy of the magazine since she was 10 years old Following her appearance on BBC Guernsey in November 2009 Marilyn was contacted by Deputy Janine Le Sauvage who had spoken to the daughter-in-law of one of the original contributors who had some copies of the magazine and Amanda Bennett at the Priaulx Library where they had some copies in their archives. After seeing some copies Marilyn said: "It's an amazing publication, way ahead of its time... the idea of the paper was to put a thorn in the side of the States." She explained that it was particularly interesting as it helped show how life in Guernsey was starting to return to normal following the Occupation: "After the war people were still suffering, still traumatised and suddenly this magazine is here showing that there's life here again." A large part of the publication was given over to reader's letters and Marilyn said the issues raised seemed to be those that come up time and again: "People are having the same old gripes about no parking and too much traffic... one complained of youths on motorbikes drinking tea!" Marilyn followed in her father's footsteps and is a journalist living in the UK. She is writing a book set in Guernsey around the time of the Occupation and will be using her research on the Guernseyman for her writing.