The Real Peter Pan

Michael Llewelyn Davies was the fourth of five brothers who provided the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's characters Peter Pan, the Lost Boys and the Darling brothers.

Barrie struck up an intense friendship with the children and their parents when he encountered them playing in London's Kensington Gardens, an area that would become the Neverland of his most enduring work. Something of the innocence of Michael, who stood out even among his brothers, went on to influence the creation of Barrie's most famous character, Peter Pan.

Such was Barrie's closeness to the Llewelyn Davies family that he became trustee and guardian to the boys following the deaths of their parents. Theirs was an enduring relationship, particularly that between Barrie and Michael, to whom he wrote daily, but it was punctuated by the fiercest of tragedies. Throughout the heart-rending saga of Barrie's involvement with the Llewelyn Davies brothers, it is the figure of Michael, the most original and inspirational of their number, and yet also the one whose fate is most pitiable, that stands out. The Real Peter Pan is a captivating true story of childhood, friendship, war, love and regret.