Peter Pan

Peter Pan
Author: J.M. Barrie
Publisher: Broadview Press
Total Pages: 504
Release: 2011-04-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1770482148

For twenty-six years after his first mention of the character, J.M. Barrie worked on the story of Peter Pan as he appeared through different incarnations: the three-act play Peter Pan, or the Boy who Wouldn’t Grow Up (1904), the illustrated novella Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (1906), the Epilogue to the play “An After Thought” (1908), the full-length novel Peter and Wendy (1911), two short stories, and finally a longer version of the original play. This edition of Peter Pan includes not only the novel and revised play as they were first published, but also an earlier novella and the previously unpublished original play. Appendices include materials from Barrie’s personal writings and contemporary reviews and illustrations.

Second Star to the Right

Second Star to the Right
Author: Lester D. Friedman
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2008-11-28
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0813546222

Over a century after its first stage performance, Peter Pan has become deeply embedded in Western popular culture, as an enduring part of childhood memories, in every part of popular media, and in commercial enterprises. Since 2003 the characters from this story have had a highly visible presence in nearly every genre of popular culture: two major films, a literary sequel to the original adventures, a graphic novel featuring a grown-up Wendy Darling, and an Argentinean novel about a children's book writer inspired by J. M. Barrie. Simultaneously, Barrie surfaced as the subject of two major biographies and a feature film. The engaging essays in Second Star to the Right approach Pan from literary, dramatic, film, television, and sociological perspectives and, in the process, analyze his emergence and preservation in the cultural imagination.

The Real Peter Pan

The Real Peter Pan
Author: Piers Dudgeon
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 418
Release: 2016-07-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1250087791

British edition has subtitle: the tragic life of Michael Llewelyn Davies.

Peter Pan's First XI

Peter Pan's First XI
Author: Kevin Telfer
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2010
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

The creator of Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie, was a hugely enthusiastic cricketer of very little talent. That didn't stop him from leading perhaps the most extraordinary amateur cricket team ever to have taken the field. Some of the twentieth century’s most famous writers including A. A. Milne, P. G. Wodehouse, and Jerome K. Jerome, regularly turned out for Barrie’s team between 1890 and 1913. This very Edwardian vision of village cricket, what Barrie called "green fields dotted with white figures on reasonable terms," was only brought to an end by the First World War. In Peter Pan’s First XI, Kevin Telfer weaves cricket, literature, history, humor, and biography to create an entertaining account of this little-known band of cricketing Peter Pans--and the age in which they lived.

Wisden on the Great War

Wisden on the Great War
Author: Andrew Renshaw
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 396
Release: 2014-05-08
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1408832364

Readers of the 1917 Wisden Cricketers' Almanack were advised by the editor, Sydney Pardon: “Its chief feature is a record of the cricketers who have fallen in the War – the Roll of Honour, so far as the national game is concerned.” By the time the conflict was over, Wisden had carried almost 1,800 obituaries. Test players like Colin Blythe were far outnumbered by men with a lesser claim to fame, as schoolboy cricketers were sent out to the battlefields fresh from their playing fields. Amid the carnage and confusion, errors inevitably crept in: names were wrong and there were cases of mistaken identity. Some mistakes have lain buried in Wisden's pages for a century: as this book discloses, three men outlived their obituary by many years. All the obituaries have been updated in Wisden on the Great War with new information about the subjects' lives and deaths, their families and memorials, and ordered by the year of death. There is a listing of the 289 men who had played first-class cricket, while the 89 who did not get an obituary in Wisden are now recognised. The book also lists for the first time the 407 first-class cricketers who were decorated for gallantry, of whom 381 survived. Among the men included is an officer who as a boy was an inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan, and one whose agonising death on the battlefield is movingly described in Robert Graves' Goodbye to All That. These men now receive proper tribute, along with literary names that are already well-known, such as Rupert Brooke, who headed his school's bowling averages in 1906 and received an obituary in Wisden that mentioned that, at the time of his death, he 'had gained considerable reputation as a poet'. The wartime Wisdens have long been cherished by families whose relatives are commemorated in them, but the originals are scarce and command a high price. Now the lives of the men are properly celebrated, enhanced by many remarkable stories of courage and coincidence. The result is a poignant insight into the cohorts of cricketers who played the ultimate game for their country.

J M Barrie and the Lost Boys

J M Barrie and the Lost Boys
Author: Andrew Birkin
Publisher: Yale University Press
Total Pages: 787
Release: 2003-07-11
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 0300211325

This literary biography is “a story of obsession and the search for pure childhood . . . Moving, charming, a revelation” (Los Angeles Times). J. M. Barrie, Victorian novelist, playwright, and author of Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, led a life almost as interesting as his famous creation. Childless in his marriage, Barrie grew close to the five young boys of the Davies family, ultimately becoming their guardian and surrogate father when they were orphaned. Andrew Birkin draws extensively on a vast range of material by and about Barrie, including notebooks, memoirs, and hours of recorded interviews with the family and their circle, to describe Barrie’s life, the tragedies that shaped him, and the wonderful world of imagination he created for the boys. Updated with a new preface and including photos and illustrations, this “absolutely gripping” read reveals the dramatic story behind one of the classics of children’s literature (Evening Standard). “A psychological thriller . . . One of the year’s most complex and absorbing biographies.” —Time “[A] fascinating story.” —The Washington Post

The Authors XI

The Authors XI
Author: Bloomsbury Publishing
Publisher: A&C Black
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2013-06-06
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1408840464

Cricket has perhaps held more writers in its thrall than any other sport: many excellent books have been written about it, and many great authors have played it. The Authors Cricket Club used to play regularly against teams made up of Publishers and Actors. They last played in 1912, and include among their alumni such greats as PG Wodehouse, Arthur Conan Doyle and JM Barrie. A hundred years on from their last match, a team of modern-day authors has been assembled to continue this fine literary and sporting tradition in a nationwide tour in search of the perfect day's cricket. The Authors XI is the story of their season. Over the course of a summer they played over a dozen matches, each one carefully chosen for capturing an aspect of cricket, in some of England's most spectacular and historic grounds, against a wide range of opponents. Each player contributes a chapter about one of their fixtures, using a match report as a starting point for an essay on cricket and its appeal, both historically and today. From Matthew Parker on cricket and empire, and Kamila Shamsie on the women's game, to Tom Holland on cricket and ageing, and Thomas Penn on cricket and history, this is an engaging look at cricket's enduring appeal. Further chapters from other team members examine issues such as class, empire, and sport and the stage.

Debussy's Paris

Debussy's Paris
Author: Catherine Kautsky
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 255
Release: 2017-09-15
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1442269839

Claude Debussy’s exquisite piano works have captivated generations with their dreamlike atmosphere and mysterious soundscapes. Written in Paris at the height of the Belle Époque, the music creates a soundtrack for Parisians’ enjoyment of such delights as clowns, mermaids, eccentric dances, and the dark tales of Edgar Allan Poe. Debussy’s Paris: Piano Portraits of the Belle Époque explores how key works reflect not only the most appealing and innocent aspects of Paris but also more disquieting attitudes of the time such as racism, colonial domination, and nationalistic hostility. Debussy left no avenue unexplored, and his piano works present a sweeping overview of the passions, vices, and obsessions of the era. Pianist Catherine Kautsky reveals little-known elements of Parisian culture and weaves the music, the man, the city, and the era into an indissoluble whole. Her portrait will delight anyone who has ever been entranced by Debussy’s music or the city that inspired it.

Herding Cats

Herding Cats
Author: Charlie Campbell
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 130
Release: 2017-03-09
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1472925734

In 1985 Mike Brearley published The Art of Captaincy, revealing how he steered Middlesex and England to victory with his team of first-class cricketers. He got the absolute best out of his players, inspiring Ian Botham to new heights against the Australians in 1981. Few cricketers have had a greater impact on the amateur game than these two. Every captain would love Brearley's degree in people, as well as a hardhitting all-rounder like Botham. But theirs was a barely recognisable game from the one we play on often dishevelled grounds up and down the country with ragtag teams of ageing, deluded or hungover friends and acquaintances. Now, Charlie Campbell offers us a New Testament to Brearley's Old Testament, as he guides us through the realities of captaining an amateur team. Herding Cats picks its way through the minefield of an amateur's season: from the excitement and hope of pre-season nets, to the desperate scramble to gather 11 players for a frosty game on a far-flung, desolate pitch; from decoding the casual phrase 'I bat a bit', to setting a field of players who can't catch or throw; from handling the most delicate egos, to dealing with a case of the yips; from frequent moments of despair, to sudden and joyful glimpses of unexpected glory. For all those of us who recognise ourselves, our teammates, our friends and partners in the shambling joy of amateur cricket more than in the top-class international game, Campbell lights a path through a weekend world of play at the beating heart of the world's second most popular sport.