J. M Barrie

This book forms part of our 'Pook Press' imprint, celebrating the golden age of illustration in children's literature. 'Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens' is a true classic of Children's literature. It was written by J.M. Barrie (1860-1937), and tells the story of a mischievous boy who can fly and never grows up. He spends his never-ending childhood on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang, the Los Boys. Mermaids, Native Americans,...

Margaret Ogilvy (1897) is a biography by J. M. Barrie. Although he is more widely known as a popular storyteller whose Peter Pan books are filled with the wit and wonder of history's greatest fairytales, Barrie was also a gifted memoirist and biographer. Margaret Ogilvy is the story of his mother and their life as a family in Scotland. Written in tribute to her influence on his life as a professional writer, Margaret Ogilvy was a bestselling book...

This is the original novelization of Peter Pan by the character creator himself, J.M Barrie! The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up was a play that received instant success in English theatres which George Bernard Shaw described as "ostensibly a holiday entertainment for children but really a play for grown-up people," suggesting deeper social metaphors in the plot. It has since been adapted into many pantomimes, musicals, motion pictures and animations. The...

Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937), best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan, was a Scottish author and dramatist whose works have enjoyed frequent revivals in film and on stage. One of his most penetrating and socially critical plays was "The Admirable Crichton", which first appeared in 1902 at the Duke of York's Theatre in London. The comical play deals with questions of social hierarchy, and sheds light on a society where rank is established...

The 1917 production of his play, "Dear Brutus," was one in a long string of successes for Barrie. The play, set in the manor of a mysterious man called Lob, takes a group of ordinary men and women and asks the question: What might happen to a person given the opportunity to remake their life? The guests are whisked into a dream-like world where they are shown what their lives "might have been." Throughout the play, Barrie imparts to his audience deep...

The creator of Peter Pan revisits his ancestral village in this 1889 work. Again he draws upon his mother's stories about a small-town in Scotland; A Window in Thrums is one of Barrie's most poignant novels. Of it he wrote: "It is a sadder book to me than it can ever be to anyone else."

The creator of Peter Pan offers a darker take on boys who won't grow up. In this 1900 sequel to The Sentimental Tommy (1896), a young man won't let go of childish fantasy. The novel, generally considered a semi-autobiographical account of Barrie's marriage, includes a comic portrait of a working writer's life.

"When Andrew Riach went to London, his intention was to become private secretary to a member of the Cabinet. If time permitted, he proposed writing for the Press." So begins the first (1888) novel by the creator of Peter Pan. Barrie considered it a juvenile effort, but some readers think he invented surrealism in these humorous pages.