Peter Pan Flies to Ayrshire to Join Joanna Lumley in Saying Happy Birthday to J M Barrie
Peter Pan flew out from his home at Moat Brae House in Dumfries at the weekend to rub shoulders with literary celebrities at the Boswell Book Festival.
He – or rather a precious statuette belonging to the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust – joined Joanna Lumley on Saturday in celebration of author J M Barrie’s 155th birthday.
Joanna, who is patron of the trust, told a sell-out audience about her life in showbusiness and her work to help raise funds to transform the house and garden where J M Barrie first imagined Peter Pan and Wendy.
She said: “I’d like to wish J M Barrie a very happy 155th birthday and say ‘thank you’ from all his fans for the happiness and magic his Peter Pan stories have brought to generations of children. He was a wonderful man with a spirit that has never grown old.
“Even though he can’t be with us today, it’s wonderful that we have this bronze statuette of his most famous character – especially as it’s an exact replica of the one J M Barrie commissioned and which stands in Kensington Gardens.
“I also think that J M Barrie would be delighted to think that after so many years, people love his work so much that fundraising is underway to turn Moat Brae House into a children’s literature and story-telling centre.
“He would particularly love the idea that it will be complete with a Neverland Discovery Garden where young people can enjoy adventures and freedom just as he did when he was at school in Dumfries.”
Boswell Book Festival, which is dedicated to biography and memoir, took place over the weekend at Dumfries House in Ayrshire.
More information about the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust and its fundraising work is available at www.peterpanmoatbrae.org.
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