It was mainly a Netflix series that brought me to Atlantic Canada.

Prince Edward Island is home to the house that inspired the book “Anne of Green Gables” and the more recent Netflix production “Anne with an E” about this endearing and precocious redheaded orphan.

My wife and I enjoyed the 2017-2019 TV show, with its strong characters and top-notch actors, its quirky and likeable child star and the bucolic landscape that gives Prince Edward Island, like l The locals call it the “sweet island”.

Millions of readers and viewers have fallen in love with Anne since her first appearance in print in 1908. Even Mark Twain was won over, calling her “the dearest and most adorable child in fiction since the immortal Alice (in wonderland)”.

The way the green and white farm that served as the model for the novel continues to attract an estimated 150,000 visitors each year is a testament to the enduring power of the imagination.

Lucy Maud Montgomery’s coming-of-age book has never been out of print and has been translated into many languages.

Part of Canada’s national parks system since 1937, the 19th-century Green Gables House, its outbuildings and grounds once owned by the author’s cousins, attract visitors from far and wide.

They can stroll on short walking trails, such as Lovers’ Lane and Haunted Wood, which have been incorporated into the book. “A walk under these green arches where nature reveals itself in all its beauty,” Montgomery wrote in his diary.

Our visit in late September included two other Canadian maritime states – New Brunswick and Nova Scotia – a land of lighthouses and lobsters. (I will return to Green Gables.)

We flew to Halifax, known among other things as the intended destination of the ill-fated Titanic. When the ship sank on its maiden voyage, the city became a base for rescue and recovery operations of the doomed luxury liner.

Just five years later, in 1917, two ships collided in Halifax Harbour. One of them was loaded with explosives, triggering the largest artificial explosion before the atomic bombs, razing part of the city and killing nearly 2,000 people.

We were exposed to a less injurious, but still deafening explosion on our first morning in Halifax on our way to the Citadel, an old fort overlooking the city and Canada’s most visited national historic site. We arrived just in time to witness the ceremonial firing of a large cannon – the Noon Gun – a tradition since 1857.

We spent the next two days touring Nova Scotia’s sparsely populated east coast, with its rocky coves, salt marshes, small provincial beaches, windswept headlands and scattered hamlets.

We reached nearby Prince Edward Island over the 8-mile Confederation Bridge, not only the longest bridge over ice in winter, but perhaps the most expensive toll, at $50 Canadian per car (around $36 US).

Our accommodation was in a rustic cabin in Cavendish, a stone’s throw from Green Gables.

Over the next two days, we explored the island that Anne of Green Gables author Montgomery loved so much, including taking a scenic 7-mile-long oceanfront bike path.

She described Prince Edward Island as “a little land colored with rubies, emeralds and sapphires.” The description fits the vibrant red cliffs of the northern part of the island, bright green fields and shimmering lakes and bays.

Building on an idea she had jotted down years before and inspired by a photo of a girl in a magazine, Montgomery designed the first pages of her famous book, sitting in her cousins’ kitchen.

“Blessed with an imagination well-developed from years of reading and writing and in tune with the rhythm and voices of the people of her community, she filled page after page with richly depicted characters and scenes,” says the Green Gables Heritage Place.

Through the heroine Anne Shirley, Montgomery illustrated the power of friendship and loyalty, the “kindred spirits” who share hopes and fears, loves and losses.

The book received wide acclaim and became an instant bestseller. From the start, reviews were positive, calling it “delightful” and “the most fascinating book of the season.” (L’Etoile de Montréal)

The New York Times in 1908 called Anne “one of the most extraordinary girls who ever came from an inkwell.”

Some early critics, while positive, were not completely convinced, saying that Anne’s vocabulary and feelings were more those of an adult than a child.

Many who grew up with this story share it with their children and grandchildren. If you read the notes fans leave at Heritage Place, their affection for the book is palpable.