“Bed is my favourite place to be,” says the lively 81 year-old author of 33 celebrated books, including the recently published and highly acclaimed Before Green Gables. Through thick round glasses and with twinkling eyes, Ms. Wilson happily shares that she was 79 when she was asked by Penguin to pen the prequel to Anne of Green Gables. She finished the last word of the book on her 80th birthday, just in time for it to be published for Anne of Green Gables centenary celebrations in April 2008.

Ms. Wilson visited Trent University on Thursday, October 9, 2008 to read from Before Green Gables as part of the Department of English Literature’s Writers Reading Series, itself celebrating a milestone anniversary: 20 years bringing important authors to Trent and to the community of Peterborough. Over the years, the series has hosted more than 150 writers at readings in both Peterborough and Oshawa, among them David Adams Richards, Bonnie Burnard, Michael Ondaatje, and Julie Johnston.

In fact, the diminutive Ms. Wilson read in the first Writers Reading Series 20 years ago when her husband, Alan Wilson, was a professor of History at Trent. Prof. Wilson started the Department of History and founded the Canadian Studies program at Trent as well. The couple spent 25 years in Peterborough before heading back to their native Nova Scotia in 1989 where they spend six months of the year in a fishing village on the province’s South Shore and winters in Halifax. Thursday’s reading by Ms. Wilson at the new Traill College Lecture Hall at Scott House (where she was introduced by her daughter Glynis Wilson Boultbee, also a Trent grad) was well attended by students, community members, and faculty alike. Many were clutching a copy of Before Green Gables, no doubt hoping to get it signed by the accomplished author after the reading.

A mélange of distinctive characteristics can’t help but contribute to Ms. Wilson’s skill as one of today’s most popular Young Adult (YA) authors. Quick-witted, discerning, warm, clearly fun-loving, and delightfully opinionated. . . Just ask her opinion on the YA label, for instance. “Why not just call them books?” she said emphatically, advocating that such categories of literature be eliminated so that people of all ages could simply enjoy any book they like.

Her sharp, decisive logic and the verbal agility with which she delivers a point puts one in mind of a certain red-headed fictional character. Perhaps it’s this and her upbringing in the Maritimes that allowed her to so completely inhabit the identity of Anne that the story of the beloved character’s days before meeting Matthew in Anne of Green Gables seemed to tell itself. At least that’s the way Ms. Wilson describes the process of writing the now popular prequel.

As might be expected, before starting the longest book of her career – and certainly her first adopting someone else’s character – she was plagued by soul-searching questions: “For whom am I writing this book?” she asked her editor, who replied, “for all the generations that ever read Anne of Green Gables.” Addressing the crowd at Traill, Ms. Wilson commented: “That’s quite a readership. It’s the kind of thing that would stun you into silence if you let it bother you.” So she told herself: “Just write the story as it comes out of your head.”

And it seems the story did come forth, just about as organically as that. While carefully researched (she made expert use of her husband Alan’s skills as an historian and researcher to confirm accurate details of the time), the scenes and words of the prequel simply flowed. From time-to-time, even characters that she never expected appeared in the story. One emerged as she was writing about a house along Anne’s route to see the egg man. “I was not expecting this woman to come out the door,” recalled Ms. Wilson. But, as an artist who believes in following the story and characters as they present themselves, she left her in. “She’ll be Mrs. Archibald,” she said. “Because that was my maiden name.”

Ms. Wilson wrote the 71 chapters of Before Green Gables in 71 days (though not consecutive ones). So complete was her engagement with the characters that she came to have favourites – and some surprised her. “Mr. Thomas ended up being my favourite character,” she said, raising her eyebrows above the rim of her glasses, as if still amazed by the fact that she could empathize with such a troubled man. “He kept saying, doing and being things I had no idea he would. He developed into that person. He was awful in many ways, but was my favourite character.”

It is these curiosities of writing that Ms. Wilson now wishes she had discussed with the late Margaret Laurence, much-loved Canadian author and former Chancellor at Trent, who became a close friend to Ms. Wilson during her years in Peterborough. “We had a very, very close friendship, but writing was not what we talked about,” she said. “She gave me some of her books and I told her I liked them. Years later, I re-read them and oh, I wish – do I wish! – that we’d talked about them. All the things we could have discussed. It’s really frustrating.” Then she added: “I didn’t ask my parents enough questions. Ask your parents questions! They’ll be gone.”

Clearly these are messages she takes to heart. The night of her reading at Trent, Ms. Wilson spent at least 15 minutes before her reading, talking to a young girl who dreams of being a writer. She is generous with her knowledge – and a generous listener. When asked about the qualities of a good writer, she talked about watching and listening.

“How many times do parents tell their children not to stare at people? . . . Well, I watch people – in restaurants, in airports, anyplace where there are groups of people interacting,” she said. “Stories are all around you. You remember your own life stories. You’ve got all of those experiences and emotions that you can draw on to give your characters because you’ve felt them or someone else has told you how they have felt. It’s a genuine thing.”

The real thing. Perhaps that was the quality the Montgomery Family valued so much when they selected Budge Wilson to write the prequel to Anne of Green Gables. Certainly, Before Green Gables reads like “a genuine thing” – and so does Budge!