The inspiration behind abridging Anne of Green Gables – a blog post by Katherine Woodfine

We were absolutely delighted to have published Anne of Green Gables in September– a beloved childhood classic by Lucy Maud Montgomery, now abridged by Katherine Woodfine and illustrated by Isabelle Follath. Today we are very excited to be sharing a blog from Katherine, herself, about her love for Anne and how she came to abridge this enchanting classic!

I was both delighted and daunted to be given the chance to write an adaptation of one of my all-time favourite children’s books, Anne of Green Gables.

I was a huge fan of Anne when I was growing up. Every detail of L M Montgomery’s classic story was vivid in my mind — from the apple-blossoms in the Green Gables orchard, to the swish of Anne’s new dress with the longed-for puffed sleeves. I loved the story’s cosiness, its beautiful setting, and its characters — particularly Anne herself, who is a uniquely powerful children’s book heroine. For all her whimsical moments (and she certainly has plenty of those!) she has an incredible strength and steeliness. We see this so clearly as we follow her on her rather bumpy journey from lonely orphan to finding a place for herself with an adoptive home and a family who help her thrive. She’s funny, clever, courageous and wildly imaginative — and I particularly admired her grit, her independence and her fiery determination to follow her dreams.

But how could I do justice to Anne as a character, and to the emotional depth of her story, in a way which would work for today’s young readers?  I knew I wanted my adaptation to be funny and moving, not twee or overly sweet. I knew I wanted this book to serve as a fun and inspiring introduction to Anne of Green Gables for children who might not yet be ready to read the original. I was also aware that many of these readers might be sharing the book with adults who could be long-time Anne fans themselves, and who would have their own ideas about what makes the story so special. The original book has nearly 80,000 words — I’d have just 10,000 for my adaptation. I’ve written retellings of classics before, but I knew that getting this right was going to be a particularly big challenge.

I began by going back to my childhood copy of the book and reading it closely, thinking about the elements that were the most important and memorable. One obvious problem was that Anne of Green Gables is an episodic story: although there is an overall arc, the book is stitched together from a series of adventures and ‘scrapes’ — from Anne smashing her slate over Gilbert Blythe’s head in the classroom, to the time she accidentally dyes her hair green. I knew I couldn’t possibly include all of these incidents, so I had to make some tough choices about which were the most important.

There were certain classic moments and lines that I knew Green Gables fans would definitely want to see — such as Anne bursting in with her arms full of autumn leaves, exclaiming: ‘I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers!’ But as well as these, I hoped to try and squeeze in some of the small details that seemed to me particularly evocative, such as the ‘little yellow crock of cherry preserves’ on the table when Anne hosts Diana to tea.

Another challenge was that this is a story with a big cast. The town of Avonlea feels like a real place filled with a whole community of characters. Once again, I had to make some difficult decisions about who I could fit in, and who would end up on the cutting-room floor. Even now, I’m still feeling a bit guilty about having to leave out some beloved characters!

Something that felt especially important was retaining some of the style, language and atmosphere of the original. LM Montgomery’s writing is sometimes rather flowery and old-fashioned — but I wanted to keep a flavour of that, so that readers would have a sense of her voice. I also wanted to retain the distinctive speech of the various different characters. As this is a book for younger readers, I knew the language should be simple, but I also didn’t want to shy away from using a few words that might be unfamiliar — such as the description of Anne’s dress of ‘yellowish white wincey’ when we first meet her on the station platform. I had no idea what wincey was when I read the book as a child, but it didn’t stop me being able to picture it clearly!

One element that was especially important was thinking about how to represent Anne’s experience of being adopted. I wanted to ensure I was depicting this in a way that was sensitive to and reflective of the experiences of young readers who might be adopted themselves, so I was grateful to have input from Polly Cowan from Scottish Adoption and Fostering who acted as a knowledgeable sensitivity reader.

Throughout the process, I worked closely with the brilliant editors at Nosy Crow, who read my drafts with a sharp eye, helped me make tricky decisions, and were just as invested in getting every detail right as I was myself. (It also helped hugely that my literary agent is even more of an Anne of Green Gables super-fan than I am myself, so I felt that if I had her hard-won approval on a part of the text, then I was probably doing all right!)

My favourite part of the process was seeing the story come to life through Isabelle Follath’s stunning artwork. From the first roughs to the final page spreads in all their glorious colour, Isabelle beautifully evoked the world of Green Gables, bringing so much depth and richness to the adaptation. Every detail was carefully considered, from the pattern on the china in the kitchen, to the patchwork quilts and — a particular favourite of mine — the flowers in the header of each chapter, which look exactly as though Anne herself has picked them and then pressed them in a scrapbook.

What I love about the finished book is how well the text and pictures work together, making for an immersive reading experience. I hope that when children read it, they will feel themselves transported into the world of this classic story, just as I was back when I first read it — complete with all its lovely apple-blossoms and puffed sleeves, but with plenty of freshness and sharpness to offset its sweetness.