Peter Pan

Right: Peter Pan, Kensington Gardens

American children of any generation later than mine have their image of Peter Pan from the same place they get entirely too many of their childhood icons: Walt Disney. I suppose that malady is worldwide now. People grow up without seeing the illustrations of Sir John Tenniel or Ernest Shepard, but carry a whopping technicolor image in their minds of Alice or Winnie-the-Pooh that’s just somehow wrong. So that’s Peter on the right, and the young lady looking up his little dress is Wendy Darling. Everyone else is a fairy or a cunning woodland creature. Every child or former child, finding him- or herself in London, really needs to pay a visit for childhood’s sake, as I did on Sunday, queueing up with much younger children for my chance to take this photo.

If you skipped Disney and read the book (I pre-date the animated feature, so got my Pan straight from Sir James Barrie), you might remember that Peter was scarcely the charming infant of the sculpture (created by Sir George Frampton in 1911 and placed in the park in 1912) by the time he was introduced to theatre-goers in 1904 and readers in 1911. Sir James’ Pan is a self-absorbed brat, and Tinkerbell is a tiny but murderous psychotic. Of course those are their darker sides; they’re really quite charming at parties.

But in spite of all the good, clean “Let’s go kill some pirates” fun to be had in the book, there are darker things being said here about the dangers of perpetual childhood. Children are creatures of impulse, mainly, and while we may scoff at civilization, it’s that process acting on us as children that, if we’re lucky, results in adults, or at least people who can wear the costume with authority. One day we’re merrily squashing bugs, and on some other day we develop compassion, and the journey to humanity has begun. Pan and the Lost Boys will be squashing bugs in the Neverland until the end of time. Girls – in the person of Wendy – are the civilizing influence the boys didn’t realize they needed until they had her. The Neverland makes you forget though, so you may be sure they don’t miss her now she’s gone. And as for Tinkerbell, she’s just laughing her ass off.