Rival books explore past and future of Peter Pan

For more than a century, fans of J. M. Barrie's classic story Peter Pan have had a few mysteries to ponder. How did the boy who never grows up lose his shadow? Why were the boys lost? And what became of Neverland?

Two rival publications are jockeying to proffer answers.

This week, Great Ormond Street Hospital, to which Barrie bequeathed the rights to his great work, will announce details of the first officially sanctioned sequel, a book by the award-winning children's author Geraldine McCaughrean, after a worldwide competition.

The sequel, titled Peter Pan In Scarlet, will be published in October to raise fresh funds for the children's hospital in London.

But to Great Ormond Street's irritation, all the time that McCaughrean has been conjuring up her new adventures, two fathers in America have been doing likewise.

Ridley Pearson, asked by his young daughter, Paige, where Peter Pan had come from, embarked on writing a prequel to the story more than two years ago. Peter and the Starcatchers has now sold 500,000 copies and spent weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

Another prequel, Peter and the Shadow Thieves, will soon be published, and a third is in the pipeline.

The new titles, by Pearson, 52, a crime writer, with his friend Dave Barry, 58, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, have been snapped up by Disney.

The studio is starting a new series of computer-generated Peter Pan animations.

Pearson said: "I was reading Peter Pan to my eldest daughter, who was about 5, and she said, 'How did Peter Pan meet Captain Hook in the first place?'

"When you think about it, before that wonderful classic gets its engine going, there's already a boy who can fly, who never grows old, who travels with a fairy and left his shadow with pirates."

He mentioned his idea for filling in gaps to his friend Barry, with whom he plays in a band called the Rock-Bottom Remainders with fellow writers Stephen King, Amy Tan and Scott Turow.

"It was going to be a small 150-page book to explore this young boy called Peter Pan but it mushroomed from there," Pearson said.

Barry said: "The American fans have been incredibly forgiving. We were both aware we were sort of tampering with one of the most beloved children's stories."

What they were not aware of initially was the link to the hospital, which gains no royalties from Peter Pan books sold in America though it will gain from the films in a deal signed with Disney half a century ago.

"We became pretty sensitive about it," said Barry. "We visited Great Ormond Street Hospital when we were in England to do research and we saw the tremendous need for funds."

The two plan to bring their celebrity band to Britain for a fund-raising concert in a bid to help.

But a hospital spokeswoman said the McCaughrean book was the only officially sanctioned title. "We urge anybody who's interested in reading a good book to buy our sequel," she said.

- INDEPENDENT