Isn't there some myth about Peter Pan's statue appearing overnight

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J M Barrie

A.� It's no myth - it happened. In 1912, Sir James (JM) Barrie - author of the Peter Pan books - hired sculptor Sir George Frampton to make a statue of the boy who never grew up. Barrie kept the project a secret, with only a select few, including Lewis Harcourt, the council's commissioner of works, aware of the plan. < xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

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After it was finished, Barrie arranged for it to be put in Kensington Gardens in the middle of the night because he wanted people to believe it was magic. And on the morning of 1 May, 1912, there it was - and still is.

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Q.� Why Kensington Gardens

A.� They were always a source of delight to Barrie, who lived nearby, and he often mentioned them in his works. In the original book, Peter enters London along the Serpentine, which feeds into the gardens.

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It is generally regarded the most beautiful of all the statues in London, and is surrounded by the fairies and animals of the garden who shared his adventures.

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Q.� Upon whom is the figure based

A.� Michael Llewellyn Davies. Barrie gave his photograph to the sculptor so he could produce a likeness.

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Q.� And who was Michael

A.� It's a sad story.� It was in Kensington Gardens that Barrie met Arthur and Sylvia Llewellyn Davies's boys - George, Jack and Peter. Soon he was a frequent visitor to their house where he would tell the boys stories. One of these stories was about the youngest boy, Peter, who, according to Barrie, would one day fly away to Kensington Gardens so that he might be a boy forever.

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Q.� Ah! The plot thickens!

A.� Precisely. When children died, he said, Peter would take them on a journey to a place called Never Never Land. When George heard the story, he said that 'dying must be an awfully big adventure'. Barrie wrote the words down. They would later become the most famous words spoken in Peter Pan.

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Q.� Why so sad

A.� His affection for the boys seemed jinxed. Peter, inspiration for the books, threw himself under a train in 1960. Michael, model for the statue, also killed himself by binding his wrists to a fellow Oxford undergraduate and drowning in the Thames.

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Q.� Did Barrie have children of his own

A.� No - and it was a constant source of unhappiness to him. Barrie, who married Agnes McLachlan in 1893, died in 1937 and bequeathed the royalties from Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children. To this day, this wonderful hospital still benefits from his work. As Princess Margaret once did.

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Q.� How

A.� The princess, while unveiling a plaque at the statue to mark its 85th birthday, revealed how she had collaborated with the great author.

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Q.� What happened

A.� She met Barrie when she at her third birthday party and they got on famously.

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He later wrote a description of their meeting for Cynthia Asquith's book The King's Daughters. He said: 'Some of her presents were on the table, simple things that might have come from the sixpenny shops, but she was in a frenzy of glee over them, especially about one to which she had given the place of honour by her plate.

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'I said to her as one astounded, 'Is that really your very own ' and she saw how I envied her and immediately placed it between us with the words 'It is yours and mine'.'

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Barrie used the phrase in his last play, The Boy David, and when he next met the princess, agreed that, as a collaborator in the production, she would receive a penny for each performance. It lasted for only a short run and Barrie paid up: 1s 2d. That's 6p.

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Steve Cunningham