Katherine Woodfine
About Author
Katherine Woodfine and Isabelle Follath introduce their retelling of LM Montgomery's classic story, Anne of Green Gables.
Katherine Woodfine writes murder mystery series including Sinclair's Mysteries and The Taylor & Rose Secret Agents series. She also writes for younger readers and short stories. Katherine lives in Lancashire, close to an old castle, with her family and two black cats.
Isabelle Follath is a freelance illustrator living in Zurich, Switzerland with her husband and daughter. She has been illustrating for advertising agencies, magazines and publishers for over 15 years, but her true passion lies in illustrating children's books. When she's not drawing you'll find Isabelle making coffee, learning new crafts or going on a hunt for new art supplies.
Interview
Anne of Green Gables (Nosy Crow)
September 2024
Author Katherine Woodfine loved LM Montgomery's classic tale Anne of Green Gables when she was a child, and was delighted to be asked to retell the story for younger readers aged six years plus. Here, she tells ReadingZone about the challenges of retelling the original story and how she approached it, and we hear from illustrator Isabelle Follath about bringing Anne of Green Gables back to life for young readers.
Read an extract from Anne of Green Gables
Review: "Katherine Woodfine's narrative is gentle, charming and stays true to the style of the original author's voice but brings the adventures (and dramas) of Anne's life alive for younger readers."
Katherine Woodfine & Isabelle Follath: Creating their retelling of Anne of Green Gables retelling
"It's a story with enormously compelling, believable characters, and that is always going to be relevant
to readers of all ages. Anne in particular is wonderfully relatable."
1. Can you tell us a little about yourselves, loves and loathings, and how you started writing and illustrating?
Katherine: I've been reading and writing for as long as I can remember. My first published book, The Clockwork Sparrow, came out in 2015, and since then I've written 14 more books for children. I am passionate about children's books - I think they are some of the most powerful and important literature we have. When I'm not reading or writing, I enjoy art, history, watching old films and going for windswept walks in the countryside, close to where I live with my family and our two black cats.
Isabelle: I'm a self-taught illustrator living in Zurich, Switzerland. Ever since I was little I have loved drawing, doodling on every surface available. While studying philosophy and computer science I started to do small illustrating jobs, until finally I took the plunge and became a full-time freelance illustrator. Nowadays I mainly illustrate children's books which is my absolute dream come true.
2. We've enjoyed your gorgeous retelling of Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery - can you remember the first time you read the book, and what you loved about it?
Katherine: I'm so pleased to hear you enjoyed it! I can't pinpoint the first time I read Anne of Green Gables, but I think I was probably about 10. I have an old paperback copy which I bought secondhand from a book-stall on the market. I've read it so many times it is falling apart now, but I know I'll never part with it - in fact, it's the copy I went back to when I was preparing to write this retelling.
Isabelle: I read Anne of Green Gables only just recently (I know, how could I have missed this?!!), after being sent Katherine's wonderful manuscript by Nosy Crow. I love Anne's sense of wonder, her zest for life and her resilience, a true heroine!
3. Why did you want to write or illustrate this Nosy Crow retelling? What did you most want to convey in your text / illustrations from the original story?
Katherine: I was delighted to be invited to write this retelling - I was a huge fan of the Anne books when I was growing up. People often think of them as being sentimental or twee but there's much more to them than that. I wanted to do justice to the humour of Anne of Green Gables, as well as to all the richness and complexity of Anne as a heroine - funny, intelligent, compassionate, ambitious and wildly imaginative. It has been a pleasure and a privilege to team up with Isabelle and Nosy Crow to help bring one of my favourite classic children's books to a new generation of young readers.
Isabelle: I couldn't believe my luck when Nosy Crow asked me to illustrate Anne of Green Gables. I instantly loved how Katherine's retelling is introducing Anne's world to younger readers and who wouldn't want to illustrate a beloved children's book classic? It's an illustrator's dream, though a very intimidating one. I can only hope to convey the comforting warmth of Green Gables, the beauty of Prince Edward Island and Anne's liveliness, all seasoned with a pinch of humour.
4. The book is loved and remembered by many adult readers, but what about Anne of Green Gables is still relevant to today's children? Why would you encourage them to give Anne of Green Gables space on their bookshelves?
Katherine: It's a story with enormously compelling, believable characters, and that is always going to be relevant to readers of all ages. Anne in particular is wonderfully relatable: today, children might not be getting into a scrape because of a mouse in the pudding-sauce, or fretting about the size of their puffed sleeves, but they will absolutely be able to identify with the intensity of Anne's emotions.
What's more, Anne of Green Gables is a story about the importance of our relationships - with our community, with our friends, and with our family, including families that might not appear conventional, but which are deeply loving. It's also a very warm, hopeful, uplifting book, and I don't think that will ever go out of style!
Isabelle: Anne's story is one of identity and belonging, something that resonates with all of us, especially while growing up. Anne's enthusiasm, her power of imagination, her independence and her determination despite all the mishaps and challenges could be very inspiring to young readers.
5. How challenging was it to condense the story and still share the story in its entirety? What has been kept, what did you decide to leave aside?
Katherine: It was definitely a challenge: Anne of Green Gables is very much an episodic story, with lots of separate incidents taking place, one after another, as well as an overarching narrative. It also covers quite a long stretch of time, from Anne's first arrival at Green Gables as a child, to when she's a young woman.
Obviously we couldn't include everything, so I had to decide which were the key parts of the story, and which would (sadly!) have to be left out. In the end, I focused on some of the most significant and memorable moments from the original - the 'fan favourite' scenes (such as Anne accidentally dyeing her hair green) - as well as those that are the most important to the story and the characters' overall development (like Matthew deciding to buy Anne a new dress for Christmas).
Another challenge was that Avonlea is very much a whole world, peopled with lots of different characters. There was no way to squeeze them all in, but I was sorry to have to leave out beloved figures like Reverend and Mrs Allen, or some of Anne's school friends. But I hope this wider world will be something that young readers will enjoy discovering when they go on to read the original book, perhaps when they're a little older, and can then relish all that extra richness that is waiting for them.
6. How did you approach updating the text and dialogue for a new generation of readers?
Katherine: It was important to me to keep as much of the flavour of the original as I could, including some of the more distinctive language and imagery. I tried to balance this with making the story clear and easy for today's young readers to understand. Getting the dialogue right was particularly important - Anne has a very particular way of speaking, as do Matthew and Marilla - and I didn't want to lose that.
Similarly, LM Montgomery is quite an effusive writer, and in the original book, there are a lot of lyrical descriptions of nature, landscapes and seasons, sometimes including some quite sophisticated vocabulary. Although I couldn't include a lot of that, I did want to try and convey some of the same atmosphere and feel.
7. How did you decide to approach the illustrations for Anne of Green Gables, and how did you decide on the style of illustration for this book?
Isabelle: I tried not to look at the existing illustrations of Anne of Green Gables so I could come up with my own version, which is really hard to do when there are so many adaptations in books, films and stage productions.
I don't really decide on a particular style of illustration when I start working on a book. It's something that happens naturally. But the historical setting and the landscape of Prince Edward Island have definitely dictated my colour palette of soft, earthy tones.
I loved illustrating the kitchen scenes, it's one of my favourite things to draw, and of course the many historical costumes and everyday items. The biggest challenges, though, were the landscape scenes, something that I've been successfully avoiding to draw until now. Nia Roberts, the brilliant book designer at Nosy Crow, had to do a lot of pep talks to get me through these!
8. Did any of the historical references bring challenges in both the text and illustrations?
Katherine: There haven't been many significant changes to the story. Although there are some historical references that may be less familiar to today's young readers, I was conscious that for me as a reader, one of the things that made Anne of Green Gables so charming was all the evocative period details, from Marilla's 'little yellow crock of cherry preserves' to the slates in the Avonlea schoolroom. I wanted to keep the distinctive feel of the place and time as much as possible.
Also, I knew that having Isabelle's gorgeous and carefully-researched illustrations to accompany the text would really help young readers to visualise the period in which the story takes place (including any less familiar elements) in all its gorgeous detail.
Isabelle: I did a lot of image research for the Prince Edward Island landscapes, for the historical costumes and for Green Gables and its interiors. I've tried to incorporate as many elements as possible from the Green Gables Heritage place on Prince Edward Island, a national historic site dedicated to L. M. Montgomery and her book.
9. What do you think would surprise readers if they go on to read the original Anne of Green Gables by LM Montgomery one day? Do you hope that your retelling would encourage them to do so?
Katherine: I very much hope that this retelling might encourage young readers to go on to read Anne of Green Gables! For me, it's very much an initial introduction, or a gateway leading on to many more wonderful books. I remember first encountering a lot of classic books in shorter adaptations as a child myself - through the Ladybird book editions in particular - and then being excited to go on to read the original versions in full, so I hope this will have the same effect.
I think readers might be surprised to discover that there are so many more books about Anne and what happens to her as she grows up, and even the adventures of her own children. It was much more common in children's literature of the late 19th and early 20th century to follow young characters into their adult lives, which isn't something we tend to see so much in children's books now. But I absolutely loved reading all the books when I was growing up - a particular favourite was Anne of the Island where we follow Anne and Gilbert to university.
10. Are there any other classics that you loved as a child and feel today's children might also enjoy?, or more contemporary historical fiction you can recommend for this age range?
Katherine: There are so many! I loved reading classics as a child, and I feel sure that readers of Anne of Green Gables would also enjoy The Secret Garden and A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett; The Railway Children by E Nesbit; and of course, Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. But I also loved lots of classic authors from later in the 20th century, such as Joan Aiken, Noel Streatfeild and Susan Cooper.
I've also been lucky enough to also retell some of my favourite classic books for adults for young readers, including Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice (for Hachette's Awesomely Austen series, illustrated by Églantine Ceulemans). I'm currently working on an adaptation of The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins for Walker Books' Abridged Classics series, which will be out next year.
In terms of contemporary historical fiction, there is such a wealth of brilliant books to recommend! A few I've particularly enjoyed recently are Nush and the Stolen Emerald by Jasbinder Bilan, The Houdini Inheritance by Emma Carroll, A Drop of Golden Sun by Kate Saunders, and Saffiyah's War by Hiba Noor Khan.
Isabelle: I was (and still am) a huge fan of all the Roald Dahl stories and I couldn't get enough of Momo and The Neverending Story by German author Michael Ende.
I'd love to recommend Katherine Woodfine's historical mystery adventure series The Sinclair's Mysteries and the Taylor & Rose series, they are both absolutely brilliant! I love to listen to the audio book versions while drawing and I always work an extra hour because they are too gripping to stop.
Anne of Green Gables
