Kate Macdonald Butler, daughter of Montgomery's youngest son Stuart Macdonald, made the long-kept family secret public in an article for Canada's Globe and Mail. "I have come to feel very strongly that the stigma surrounding mental illness will be forever upon us as a society until we sweep away the misconception that depression happens to other people, not us – and most certainly not to our heroes and icons," she wrote.

Macdonald Butler was also prompted to break the family's silence by the heightened focus on Montgomery this year, which marks the 100th anniversary of the publication of Anne of Green Gables.

"Despite her great success, it is known that she suffered from depression, that she was isolated, sad and filled with worry and dread for much of her life," Macdonald Butler wrote. She said that Montgomery had to cope both with "her husband's mental illness and the restrictions of her life as a clergyman's wife and mother in an era when women's roles were highly defined".

*****

"The fictional Anne went on to happiness and a life full of love and fulfilment. My grandmother's reality was not so positive, although she continues to inspire generations of readers with her books, which reveal her understanding of nature – both in matters of the heart and the world," she wrote. "I hope that by writing about my grandmother now there might be less secrecy and more awareness that will ease the unnecessary suffering so many people experience as a result of such depressions."

An email arrives from the Society of Author's Children's Writers And Illustrators Group. Apparently, a well-established, enormous publishing house has decided to insert the following clause into its standard contract for children's books: "If you act or behave in a way which damages your reputation as a person suitable to work with or be associated with children, and consequently the market for or value of the work is seriously diminished, and we may (at our option) take any of the following actions: Delay publication / Renegotiate advance / Terminate the agreement."

The publisher's name? Ooh, that would be giving it away. Really? Oh go on then: Random House.

This is not to say anyone will stand for it - the SoA advises affected authors to ask for it to be removed - and that Random House will suddenly realise that it's not very good PR and cease this rot immediately. But even to have instigated such an outrageous demand is both paranoid and threatening.

Philip Pullman, Anne Fine, Michael Morpurgo and current Children's Laureate Michael Rosen are leading a rapidly growing movement of writers, illustrators, librarians, independent booksellers and others working in children's books to hit back at the publishers forthcoming age-guidance on children's books. Under the campaign slogan "No to Age Banding," the campaign is swiftly gathering signatures.

Introduced for sales reasons following research that showed that consumers wanted some age guidance to help them in choosing books (see our story), the first books are becoming available just as this considerable backlash is launched. Thus far, resistance has been unspoken: several publishers, including Bloomsbury, David Fickling and Walker Books, while not willing to say that they are against age guidance, are not putting the ranges onto their books.

In an unusual breach between publishers and their authors, the opposition campaign leaders seek to "disavow publicly any connection with such age-guidance figures," according to their statement, on the grounds that age guidance is ill-conceived and will damage the interests of young readers. They went on to state a number of reasons against, including stigmatizing readers and their "passionately held conviction that everything about a book should seek to welcome readers in and not keep them out."

Young readers, already worried about Harry Potter, now face a new threat. Lemony Snicket (a.k.a. Daniel Handler, 36) says at least two characters will die in his 13th and final "A Series of Unfortunate Events" book, The End. The fate of the Baudelaire orphans and their nemesis, Count Olaf, will be revealed when 2.5 million copies go on sale at 12:01 a.m. on the appropriately unlucky day of Friday, Oct. 13. The first dozen "Unfortunate" books have sold more than 50 million copies.

Booksellers applaud the timing. Mary McCarthy of Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee hates to see the series end, but says "certainly 13 is the way to go." In a Potter-less year, "this will fill sort of a void," says Becky Anderson, owner of Anderson's Bookshops in Illinois. On Oct. 13, her stores will hold trivia contests with "unfortunate prizes" like moldy cheese and socks with holes. And Barnes & Noble will raffle off 797 autographed copies (one at each of its stores). "The books have a Dickensian charm," says Josalyn Moran, B&N's VP of children's books. Readers' lives "are a piece of cake compared to the poor orphans."

On Sept. 5, HarperCollins is releasing The Beatrice Letters, a related book with clues to how the "Un-fortunate" series will end. Paramount/Nickelodeon has the rights to more movies. As for The End, the book's editor, Susan Rich, promises that it delivers an "unhappily ever after" finish.