Peter Pan and Wendy

Bound in blocked buckram
Set in Caslon
216 pages
Frontispiece and 11 colour illustrations, and 23 integrated black & white illustrations
Printed endpapers
Plain slipcase
11¾˝ x 8¾˝

London-based artist Debra McFarlane has worked with Folio on a number of books, including The Little White Horse and The Nursery Rhyme Book, and her magical style perfectly befits this tale of eternal youth. Twelve charming etchings vividly conjure up the people and places of Barrie’s imagination, from the Darlings in Bloomsbury to Hook in Neverland. A further 23 black-and-white ink drawings are integrated throughout the text, and include a beautiful, detailed map of Peter Pan’s enchanted world. McFarlane’s designs can also be seen the stunning binding with blocked silver fairy motifs and striking pink flowers.

‘Would you like an adventure now, or would you like to have your tea first?’

Originally written and performed as a stage play in 1904, J. M. Barrie adapted his script into a novel in 1911, and Peter Pan and Wendy went on to become one of the best-selling and most beloved children’s books of all time. Based on stories that the author told his close friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies’s sons, the cheeky and free-spirited boy destined for eternal youth is an homage to the brothers, who would later become Barrie’s wards following their parents’ death in close succession. However, the ‘boy who would never grow up’ almost certainly also alludes to Barrie’s brother, David, who died in a tragic accident shortly before his fourteenth birthday. A fascination with childhood followed the author throughout his life and Peter Pan and Wendy would go on to become the world’s ode to eternal youth.

J. M. Barrie (Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1860–1937) was born in Angus, Scotland, the ninth of ten children. He was educated in Glasgow, Angus and Dumfries before attending the University of Edinburgh. Barrie was a keen reader from early childhood, enjoying books by James Fenimore Cooper and Walter Scott. After a fledgling career as a journalist, he started to write novels that evoked nostalgia for a lost pre-industrial Scotland, which were not well received. Barrie enjoyed more success as a playwright. Peter Pan, his most lasting creation, debuted as a novel in 1902 before becoming a play in 1904. A novelised version of the play followed in 1911. Barrie had long been haunted by the idea of a child that never grows up, ever since the death of his elder brother when he was six. For many years (until a painful divorce) Barrie lived with his wife in South Kensington. Their marriage was reportedly unconsummated, and they had no children. Whilst out walking in Kensington Gardens, Barrie met a family of five boys; he became close to the Llewelyn Davies family, and Peter Pan was named for one of the boys, who hated being identified with the character. Barrie died in 1937, dividing his estate among his secretary, his ex-wife and the surviving Llewelyn Davies boys.

Debra McFarlane was born in Wimbledon in 1974 and grew up in Kingston-upon-Thames. After graduating from Kingston University with a BA Hons in Illustration in 1997 Debra has worked as a freelance illustrator and printmaker. She often works in etching and aquatint (inked-up on the plate in one sitting and printed in one impression) but her current medium is watercolour. Debra’s personal work is mostly inspired by fairytales and stories, animals and mythological creatures, and places she has visited. She works from a studio in South Wimbledon, run by ACAVA, having previously worked in an old wharf by the Thames in Hammersmith. Debra has worked on a number of Folio editions, including The Little White Horse (2013) and The Nursery Rhyme Book (2016).