Anne and Elizabeth: My headstrong heroes

By Gabrielle Jackson

There were two adventurous young girls I was obsessed with as a young girl myself and I read about them with rapacious enthusiasm.

They were Elizabeth Allen from Enid Blyton’s The Naughtiest Girl in the School series and Anne (with a e) Shirley from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables epic. They were both headstrong but smart, troublesome but kind. I idolised and identified with them both.

Every birthday or Christmas brought the next book in the series and every time I finished one was a time of intense mourning . When Elizabeth finally graduated from the school in which she was the naughtiest, it was time for Anne to come into my life. I was older when I read about Anne and perhaps that’s why – or where – the line blurred between me reading about Anne and thinking I was Anne. Back when being called Gaye was still acceptable, I even insisted on being Gaye with an e.

I gave that up at about the time I began looking for my own Gilbert Blythe. Perhaps it’s time to re-read the Anne series and draw a line  - finally - under me as Anne since I am neither a teacher, nor married (to a doctor), but still as inspired now by her imagination and wit as I was then. 

This post was published as part of Not the Style Pages' SpeedBlog series