Today May 9 the 150th anniversary of the birth date of author J. M Barrie (Sir James Matthew Barrie), is being celebrated. The Google doodle for today especially commemorates Barrie and depicts scenes from his most popular work, known throughout the world, Peter Pan.

What though do you know about the great man himself apart from the fact that he wrote Peter Pan of course? I’ll give you a top ten of interesting things to know about the man who was born on May 9 1860 and died on 19 June 1937.

1 – According to his passport he was a short man of only 5 feet 3 and a half inches.
2 – He was the ninth of ten children and when he was 6 one of his brothers died in an ice-skating accident. His mother was so distraught that Barrie tried to take his place, even wearing his brother’s clothes and whistling like him.
3 – Although he wanted to be an author his family wanted him to become a minister.
4 – He would play ‘pirates’ in the gardens of Moat Brae house with his friends, later depicted in scenes of Peter Pan.
5 – Until he wrote Peter Pan, the girls name Wendy, had hardly been heard of.
6 – Barrie made known in 1929 that the copyright of his most popular work Peter Pan, should be given to the Great Ormond Street children’s hospital in London.
7 – He had many famous friends, among them H.G. Wells and George Bernard Shaw. One of his closest friends was Robert Falcon Scott (Captain Scott of the Antarctic), who actually wrote to Barrie in his final hours at the South Pole before he died.
8 – He was married although it was reportedly unconsummated and ended in divorce. He never had children of his own.
9 – In 1912 a statue of Peter Pan was erected in Kensington Gardens but Barrie was disappointed in it saying “It doesn’t show the devil in Peter.”
10 – Barrie died in 1937 of pneumonia and is buried at Kirrimuir.

Are you a Peter Pan fan? If so what character do you most identify with and why? We’d be interested to hear from you.

Source: Wikipedia.org

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