Matthew and Marilla Cuthbert have sent to the orphanage for a boy. So when a skinny, red-haired girl turns up, she is not quite what they had in mind. Anne Shirley soon sets the quiet island community of Avonlea talking of little else. With her incessant chatter and intense imagination, things are never dull with Anne – in fact, they are frequently fiery. But slowly the islanders realise that beneath the quicksilver tongue and the red-headed temper is a little girl with a heart of gold, who brings a much-needed warmth and vitality to the community. Since its publication in 1908, the story of Anne Shirley has touched a chord in the hearts of readers all over the world: ‘… old pioneers in the Australian bush, girls in India, missionaries in China, monks in remote monasteries, premiers of Great Britain, and red-headed people all over the world have written to me, telling me how they loved Anne’, wrote L.M. Montgomery about her heroine. The infectious liveliness and charm of the novel emanates delightfully from this BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation.