The Real Peter Pan

His elder brother Peter may have been more aptly named for the part, but it was Michael, the fourth son of Sylvia and Arthur Llewelyn Davies, who was the original 'little half-and-half' – the half-human, half-supernatural Peter Pan, who hopes never to be compelled to grow up and face life's harsh realities. The playwright struck up a friendship with Michael's three older brothers after he encountered them playing in London's Kensington Gardens, an area that would become the first location for the Neverland of his most enduring work. But soon it was Michael who was 'The One'. Touched by his grandfather George du Maurier's 'sixth sense', Michael lived the fantasy life more intensely than any of them, even participating in a hauntingly accurate prediction of events to come as Peter Pan daring himself to drown in the mermaids' lagoon, fascinated by the prospect of an afterlife. Nightmares and an unnatural terror of water ensued, but no one intervened or thought to stop the...