Budge Wilson - Biography
Budge Wilson was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1927, and attended university in
Halifax and Toronto. She spent many years in Ontario but in 1989 returned to Nova
Scotia where she lives in a fishing village. She began writing later in life, after teaching and working as a commercial artist, photographer, and fitness instructor. Since 1984 she has published 32 books and won many book awards. Her collection of short stories called
The Leaving was included on the American Library Association's list of “The 75 Best
Children's Books of the Last 25 Years.” In 2004, she was made a Member of the Order of
Canada.
Budge Wilson has 2 children and 2 grandchildren. Her husband Alan, an historian, helped with the research for Before Green Gables , such as what people ate and how they travelled at the time of the story. In an interview, Budge said she did not plan the entire book with a detailed outline. She said she likes to think about the characters in a book first and then begin writing, allowing the characters to lead the direction of the story.
Wilson said this to an interviewer at Amazon.ca:
“When you write a novel of any kind, things continually happen that you don't expect. I can't give you any reason for this, but it's one of the interesting aspects of writing a book. You're so often surprised by things that jump off your pen. (And I write with a pen, and have done so with all 32 books that I've written.) In fact, often, when I start a day of writing on a novel, I think (with pleasant anticipation): "I wonder what will happen in the story today."”
Wilson was particularly interested in showing how Anne became the optimistic and articulate young girl we meet in the beginning of Anne of Green Gables , despite her life of drudgery.
Budge Wilson's books include:
The Imperfect Perfect Christmas
Fractures: Family Stories
Izzie: Book One, The Christmas That Almost Wasn't
A Fiddle for Angus
The Fear of Angelina Domino
The Cat That Barked
Sharla
The Long Wait
Duff the Giant Killer
Mothers & Other Strangers
Oliver's Wars
The Best/Worst Christmas Present Ever

From Booklist:
Timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s
Anne of Green Gables , the release of this prequel** is sure to cause a stir among Anne Shirley fans. Though some fans will object, those who have often imagined Anne’s life before Green
Gables will devour this backstory. Everyone who ever read the original book remembers hints suggesting that Anne’s prior life was tough, and Canadian author Budge Wilson paints an appropriately bleak portrait of the orphaned Anne’s early years. Still, she manages to maintain the optimistic tone of the original book.
From Publishers Weekly : Acclaimed author Wilson's charming prequel** to the beloved classic
Anne of Green Gables gets off to a slow start but picks up momentum when the focus shifts from the heroine's parents to Anne herself. Orphaned in infancy, Anne is shuffled from one family to the next. Despite poverty, hardship and heartbreak, she retains her indomitable spirit and an intense hunger for knowledge. from The Guardian (U.K.) : Within months of the original book's publication in 1908, Anne of
Green Gables became a classic heroine for any little girl who has ever fretted about her looks, hungered for Art and Beauty, and pursued long words in the hope they would become her special friends. Budge Wilson may have had the authorisation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's heirs in writing this prequel, but you feel that she is pretty much on her own in this story of what happened during Anne's early years.
Wilson takes her clues from Montgomery's original and expands upon them. Anne's story starts with the early death of her parents and takes her to informal adoption and unpaid work in two dirt-poor farmsteads. The "imaginary friends" to whom Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne alludes as her constant companions through these dark years are given a bigger role in Wilson's book.
Whenever she needs us to know what's going on in Anne's head, Wilson sends her heroine off to talk out loud to her invisible friends.
Where this prequel** succeeds, though, is in the details of rural Canadian women's lives which could be only hinted at in the original. The first woman for whom Anne slaves is battling domestic violence from an alcoholic husband (in Montgomery's original, Mr Thomas is simply referred to as "a drunkard"). The second employer has 8 children within 5 years. This is a world of spoiled hopes, aching backs and endless dirty diapers which the tiny orphan is obliged to scrub day after day. Under these conditions, the world of fantasy which Lucy Maud Montgomery created for Anne starts to seem less like a charming quirk and more like the psychological defence of a damaged child.
Although there is gloom, Wilson manages to keep some of the charm of the original Anne of
Green Gables in her book. She shares Montgomery's ability to paint a brilliant word picture of
Atlantic Canada. The blossoms, the autumn leaf drop and the months of dirty, compacted snow are all vividly present, and become a shaping factor in the lives of her characters.
**Prequel : A novel or film usually written after the popular success of an earlier work but set before the events in that successful earlier work, and incorporating characters, settings, and situations with which the audience is already familiar. Opposite of sequel .

Here are some questions designed to help you start talking about the book.
1. List the places/families where Anne lived.
2. Other than Anne, who is your favourite character in this book? Why?
3.a. Describe the Egg Man and his house. What was his story? b. How does he help
Anne? What does he give her?
4.a. Why did Anne feel lonely? b. What did she do to combat loneliness? c. What was the significance of the bookcase?
5.a. What words would you use to describe Anne’s character or personality? b. Do you think it is realistic that Anne would grow up to be so optimistic when she had such a hard early life?
6. Describe the lives of the mothers in the book. How do the day-to-day lives of the mothers in the book differ from women's lives today?
7. The original book Anne of Green Gables opens when Anne is 11 years old and she is met at a Prince Edward Island train station by a shy, old bachelor who thinks the orphanage in Nova Scotia is sending a boy to him and his elderly sister. If you have read the original book or have seen the movie, do you recall wanting to know about Anne's life before Green Gables?
8. Would you go to school if it took you 2 hours to walk there through unploughed snow?
Explain your answer.