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Megan Follows returns to Lucy Maud Montgomery's world with Emily of New
Moon audiobook | CBC Books Loaded
[19]Books

Megan Follows returns to Lucy Maud Montgomery's world with Emily of New Moon
audiobook

The actor first rose to fame when she starred in the adaptation of Lucy
Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series on CBC.

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[20]CBC Books · Posted: Jul 14, 2021 10:06 AM ET | Last Updated: July
14
Megan Follows speaks onstage during the Reign panel discussion at the
2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour on July 30 in Beverly
Hills, California. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
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Megan Follows first rose to fame as the star of the CBC series Anne of
Green Gables, which remains the highest rated Canadian drama series
since airing in the 1980s.

Follows now narrates the audio adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's
three-book series, Emily of New Moon.

Emily of New Moon is a darker set of books than Anne of Green Gables.
The series follows Emily Starr, who is sent to live with snobbish
relatives after the death of her father. Despite being bullied by her
classmates and cold family members, Emily makes new friends and holds
on with her quick wit.

The new audio adaptation is produced by Chatham-based company Voices in
the Wind.

Follows spoke to Chris dela Torre on [21]CBC's Afternoon Drive about
returning to the world of P.E.I. writer Lucy Maud Montgomery.
Afternoon Drive9:29Megan Follows on voicing "Emily of New Moon"
audiobook

What attracted you to this project?

It'd been a long time since I'd done audio recordings and audio book
work. I wanted to explore it and go back into that world. It was a fun
revisiting of the author, to hear her language again, to be transported
to that time and place. Even though it's obviously a different series
with the Emily of New Moon books, but still obviously so strongly the
voice of Lucy Maud Montgomery, who I'm a fan of. It was a fun
opportunity to just sit in the booth and talk.

Could you explain what the Emily of New Moon series is about?

Emily of New Moon is about a young woman. In the beginning, her father
is dying and she is going to have to go and live with relatives. A lot
of Lucy Maud's stories are about children who are thrust into a world
that can, at times, be very unforgiving and very judgmental. They have
to become huge advocates for themselves and find their voice and their
place in the world. Emily is on that journey, too.

How do you compare Emily with Anne Shirley?

They were written at a little bit of a different time. I think that
Emily, in a way, maybe is a bit truer to some of the rougher challenges
that Lucy Maud herself may have faced. She was orphaned as a young
woman. Her mother died when she was very young and then her father went
out west and she was left in the care of her grandparents.

The adults are quite unforgiving at times in Emily of New Moon. They
are very tough, strong-willed people. It's beautifully written,
but it's not always a friendly, warm place for this young woman.
* [22]75 facts you might not know about Anne of Green Gables and
author Lucy Maud Montgomery

I think about the creative challenge of this particular kind of
work, having only your voice to tell the story. From what I understand,
this turned out to be 6.5 hours worth of material.

It's dense. What's funny, too, is that Lucy Maud writes a lot of
characters. She's very, very strong in the dialogue. We think of Lucy
Maud and we understand her incredible, descriptive ability, but she
really gets into characterization. You've got their father doing this
and that and then there's Uncle Jim and then there's an aunt and others
and they're all sitting around a table.

Her work is very evocative. She really brings people to life.- Megan
Follows on Lucy Maud Montgomery

When you're going, "Oh my God, you've got 16 people around the
table and I've got to find somewhat of a voice that's separate from all
of them." They're just having this great dialogue, these conversations.
Her work is very evocative. She really brings people to life.

Lucy Maud Montgomery's long road to fame

Digital Archives
25 years ago
7:40
Montgomery pursues her writing career in turn-of-the-century P.E.I.
7:40

What was that like for you creatively?

I guess it was perfect, given the world that we were all living in at
the time. We were in COVID. The recording studio had just opened back
up. This is back in the winter. It was going from the isolation of one
space into a recording studio all sanitized down, in this cocoon-like
world.

In a way, the true beauty of the literature is that I got to be
transported to outside my circumstances and situations into someone
else's life. That's really the beautiful thing about her work.

Even aside from COVID, it's a pretty fascinating project for the year
2021. How do you think audiences might benefit from a slower and more
patient form of entertainment?

I think we have these two different worlds happening. On the visual
front, we obviously have TikTok and Instagram, these new shorter visual
platforms. We also have longer ones.

The true beauty of the literature is that I got to be transported to
outside my circumstances and situations into someone else's life.-
Megan Follows

But podcasts are the other extremes. People are prepared to sit down
and listen for anywhere from minutes to hours. It's like going back to
the old days of radio dramas. They're going to do these dramas, but
it's just going to be the voice. We used to call that radio drama.
The Secret Life of Canada18:14S3: Crash Course on L. M. Montgomery
(a.k.a. Maud without an E)
Today we look into the life of Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery, creator of
iconic characters like Anne of Green Gables and Emily of New Moon. The
lesser-known story is that of the writer herself, who had many
struggles within her own life, especially with her mental health. Today
we are going to talk about that. 18:14

It was written as a children's novel, but what do you want people to
take away from this and why should people invest their time and in this
version of Emily of New Moon?

The truth is that Lucy Maud wasn't just writing for children. She was
writing as a voice and an advocate for young people, as well as
characters of many ages that are enjoyed, deeply multi-generationally.
There was a movement at the time that tried to discredit this
author, but the truth is that she really tried to find a voice that
speaks not just to children or women or young women. It happens that
these characters are young women or are girls. Huckleberry Finn is not
just something that we think of as a children's novel. It's a voice
that she just had a beautiful access to.

She was writing as a voice and an advocate for young people.- Megan
Follows on Lucy Maud Montgomery

I think there is something that people identify with — being
ostracized, being bullied, being excluded, the fear of not fitting in,
not being wanted. What is my voice? How do I belong? How do I find a
voice and a place in the world? That is as much a part of our present
day situation.

How do we appreciate and love the natural world? Lucy Maud Montgomery
was a huge lover and supporter of the conservation of the natural
world. We are now at a spot in time, if that isn't one of our critical,
important issues, nothing else is really. She really was very ahead of
her time.

Book to Ballet: Anne of Green Gables

CBC Books
2 years ago
9:06
CBC Books spent a day filming Canada's Ballet Jörgen as they
workshopped a scene in their full-length adaptation of Anne of Green
Gables. 9:06

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.

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