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Tue 24 Oct, 2006 10:33 am
(CBS) In the Neverland of children's literature, Peter Pan and the other characters never did grow old. They remain as full of life now as they were more than 100 years ago. When Jim Barrie wrote the story it became an instant sensation in print, on stage and on the silent screen, and royalties came pouring in to the author, who ?- although he loved children ?- had none of his own.
So when he died, James Barrie left it all to one of the earliest pediatric hospitals in London, Great Ormond Street.
Over the decades the royalties have continued to flow from remake after remake of the beloved tale. The money has helped keep Great Ormond Street on the cutting edge of pediatric care.
"James Barrie gave his copyright to the hospital and it was the most generous gift anyone could have done," hospital spokesperson, Laura Redmond told Sunday Morning contributor Elizabeth Palmer as she pointed out the plaque in Barrie's memory in the hospital chapel.
It was a gift that's helped save many young lives, but next year, the copyright on "Peter Pan" will run out and the royalties will dwindle away. The hospital organized a competition to find an author willing to write the sequel to "Peter Pan" and send Wendy and the Lost Boys, who are all grown up at the end of the first book, flying back over the rooftops of London to Neverland.
The winner was Geraldine McCaughrean.
"Of course when I got the job ?- oh, oh I've got to find time to write this book," she said. "I've got to really, really write the sequel to "Peter Pan," but luckily it just seized me by the heart and um, just swallowed me in."
The result is "Peter Pan in Scarlet" which was just published to critical acclaim in the press ?- and in the ward of Great Ormond Street hospital, where McCaughrean met long-time patient, and avid reader, Flora Edward-Few.
"Don't panic, it was good," Flora told McCaughrean.
McCaughrean said the book had to be "swashbuckling," and the "plot hinges on things Barrie loved
medical intervention."
Purists beware: Tinkerbell has been replaced, but McCaughrean has proved something that Peter himself wouldn't have believed: Grownups can return to Neverland.
I'm a bit disturbed, not having seen the book as yet, that Tinkerbell has been replaced. Why break up a successful team? It calls to mind the sequel to Gone With the Wind. In that one, the tale was removed to Ireland, thereby sidestepping the complex relations between black and white people of the time. In short, no longer Gone With the Wind, but getting credit for being so.
Edgar--
I share your reservations about coat-tailing on an established classic. I'll probably read the book, although when the SFBC offered me a chance to buy it, I checked the "No" box. I'll read the book to reinforce my disappointment.
Spoiler warning: Plot details follow.
The novel sees the return of Wendy Darling, her brother John and adopted brothers Nibs, Slightly, Tootles, the Twins and Curly, who were once Peter Pan's Lost Boys. At the end of Peter Pan and Wendy, Wendy, John and Michael Darling brought the Lost Boys home to London where Mr. and Mrs. Darling adopted them. The novel opens with John Darling and his wife denying the existance of vivid, realistic dreams about Neverland that John keeps having, which brings back different relics of his time in Neverland as a child: a cutlass, a pistol, et cetera.
We discover that each of the Lost Boys and Wendy have also been having these vivid dreams of Neverland and Wendy arrives at the conclusion that bombs from the Great War have punched holes through their world into Neverland and dreams and ideas are filtering through. Wendy tells the former Lost Boys, now known as Old Boys, that they must find a way of returning to Neverland and helping Peter Pan return both worlds to normalcy.
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Reviews of Peter Pan in Scarlet
Generally, reviews have been positive and where they are critical they acknowledge the strength of McCaughrean's writing and vision.
Newsnight Review 06/10/06
Guardian 7/10/2006
Independent on Sunday 8/06/2006
Observer 8/06/2006
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Radio Adaptation
A radio adaptation of Peter Pan in Scarlet was broadcast at 2:30 to 3:30pm (GMT) on BBC Radio 4 on the 14th of October 2006 as part of their Saturday Play series. This adaptation starred Robert Glenister as the Narrator, Daniel Mays as Peter Pan, Kate Maberly as Wendy and Roger Allam as Ravello.
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Full Cast List
Narrator ...... Robert Glenister
Peter Pan ...... Daniel Mays
Wendy ...... Kate Maberly
Ravello ...... Roger Allam
John ...... Tom George
Tootles (F) ...... Robin Weaver
Tootles (M) ...... Joseph Kloska
Fireflyer ...... Peter Gunn
Curly ...... Simon Scardifield
Slightly ...... Steven Webb
Twin 1 ...... Damian Lynch
Twin 2 ...... Paul Richard Biggin
Starkey/Smee/Roarer ...... Sam Dale
Woman 1/Roarer ...... Rachel Atkins
Tinkerbell ...... Emerald OHanrahan
Music composed by David Pickvance; producer/director Celia De Wolff.
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