All the World's a Stage: Peter Pan

Sir James Matthew Barrie was a Scottish novelist and playwright, best remembered as the creator of Peter Pan. He was born and educated in Scotland and then moved to London, where he wrote several successful novels and plays. There he met the Llewelyn Davies boys, who inspired him to write about a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens, then to write Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 West End "fairy play" about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. Barrie was made a baronet by George V on 14 June 1913, and a member of the Order of Merit in the 1922 New Year Honours. Ella Beech is a children's book author and illustrator living in Cambridge with her husband, 16-year-old son and Sonny the tabby cat! She completed an MA in Children's Book Illustration at Cambridge School of Art in January 2022 and now works part-time as an Associate Lecturer there, teaching across all modules. She loves to work in traditional media and her work is rooted in observational drawing - experimenting with colour, texture, light and composition.