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  • Published: 2 June 2008
  • ISBN: 9781408499962
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 24 min
  • Narrators: Barbara Barnes, Sean Baker, Susan Engel

Anne of Green Gables





A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation of the enchanting children's classic about a little red-headed girl with a heart of gold.

Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert have sent to the orphanage for a boy. So when a skinny, red-haired girl turns up, she is not quite what they had in mind. Anne Shirley soon sets the quiet island community of Avonlea talking of little else. With her incessant chatter and intense imagination, things are never dull with Anne - in fact, they are frequently fiery. But slowly the islanders realise that beneath the quicksilver tongue and the red-headed temper is a little girl with a heart of gold, who brings a much-needed warmth and vitality to the community. Since its publication in 1908, the story of Anne Shirley has touched a chord in the hearts of readers all over the world: '... old pioneers in the Australian bush, girls in India, missionaries in China, monks in remote monasteries, premiers of Great Britain, and red-headed people all over the world have written to me, telling me how they loved Anne', wrote L.M. Montgomery about her heroine. The infectious liveliness and charm of the novel emanates delightfully from this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation.

  • Published: 2 June 2008
  • ISBN: 9781408499962
  • Imprint: BBC DL
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 2 hr 24 min
  • Narrators: Barbara Barnes, Sean Baker, Susan Engel

About the author

L.M. Montgomery

Lucy Maud Montgomery was born in Clifton, Prince Edward Island in 1874. Her universally beloved Anne of Green Gables has been translate into 15 different languages and was made into a film. Ms. Montgomery died in Toronto on April 24, 1942 and was buried at Cavendish, Prince Edward Island.

Lucy Maude Montgomery (1874 - 1942) was born on Prince Edward Island, off the east coast of Canada. She spent her childhood there, living with her grandparents after her mother's death when she was only two. Many scenes in Anne of Green Gables are drawn from her happy memories of the island and the farmhouse where she was brought up. She was an avid reader and was always writing poems and short stories. Her first published work, a poem, appeared in the local paper when she was just fifteen. After school and university she became a teacher, always continuing with her writing.
When she was asked to contribute a short story to a magazine, she dusted off an idea for a plot she had jotted down when she was much younger, and turned it into Anne of Green Gables, one of the most popular books ever written. Lucy said about the book:
'I thought girls in their teens might like it. But grandparents, school and college boys, old pioneers in the Australian bush, girls in India, missionaries in China, monks in remote monasteries, premiers of Great Britain, and red-headed people all over the world have written to me, telling me how they loved Anne and her successors.'Lucy married a Presbyterian minister in 1911 and moved with him to Toronto. She continued to set her stories on 'the only island there is' and where her heart always remained.

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