Welcome to the Public Domain

• Author: Miriam Phillips

Jean de Brunhoff (1899-1937)

From an early age, Jean de Brunhoff was inseparable from his books. However, he originally intended to become a professional artist, and studied painting at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière. After the birth of his sons, Brunhoff invented a bedtime story about a little elephant. His children took part in the creation of the storyline and Brunhoff himself illustrated the tale and turned it into a book. The original series traced six stages in the life of Babar the elephant: his birth, the loss of his mother, his journey to the city, his education, his return home, his marriage, his coronation, the birth of his children, and the development of his kingdom. After Brunhoff's untimely death at the age of thirty-eight, his elder son Laurent expanded the series to the fifty-odd Babar books that exist today.

Sir James Matthew Barrie (1860-1937)

Born into a large Scottish family, JM Barrie grew up listening to tales of adventure and fantasy told by his mother every evening. At the age of thirteen, Barrie left his home village to pursue his studies. In 1888, Barrie's first successful book was published - Auld Licht Idylls, a humorous sketch of Scottish life. After the dramatization of his novel, The Little Minister, Barrie focused on writing for the theatre. Peter Pan or The Boy who would not Grow Up (first entitled, Peter and Wendy) was originally produced for the stage in 1904. The characters evolved from stories told by Barrie to the five young sons of his good friend Sylvia Llewelyn Davies.

A Gift of Copyright

In 1929 J.M. Barrie donated his copyright in Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street children's hospital in London. The royalties from book sales, stage performances and the many film adaptations have provided a major source of income to the hospital ever since, helping it to become a centre of excellence in pediatric medicine.

With the expiry of the copyright term in Europe approaching, the Hospital trustees came up with a creative solution. They ran a competition to select an author to write a Peter Pan sequel, with royalties from the new book to be split between the author and the hospital. The new work, Peter Pan in Scarlet, by Geraldine...