The untold story of Peter Pan: the shocking account of J.M. Barrie's abuse and exploitation of the Du Maurier familyIn his revelatory Neverland, Piers Dudgeon tells the tragic story of J.M. Barrie and the Du Maurier family. Barrie's fascination and obsession with the Du Maurier family is a shocking study of greed and psychological abuse, and his compulsion to dominate was so apparent to those around him that D. H. Lawrence once wrote: J. M. Barrie has a fatal touch for those he loves. They die.

Bringing joy to thousands around the world, Maeve Binchy's heart-warming tales of love, life and loss made her one of Ireland's most celebrated writers. Seared with a truth and honesty that leapt from the page, her stories captured imaginations and won legions of loyal fans, all entranced by the charm and tradition of ordinary life in pastoral Ireland. There was no greater storyteller than Maeve Binchy. In this first biography of the much-loved author, Piers Dudgeon vividly describes a life at once so familiar and yet so extraordinary, played against the backdrop of Maeve's favourite recurring character: Ireland. This was the land of her birth, the setting of her childhood and the scene of so much self-discovery. It was here that Maeve experienced the agony of adolescence, the emancipation from devout religion and the eventual acceptance of her own worth, culminating in the qualities that defined her both as a writer and a person. Drawing on extensive research and personal...

His elder brother Peter may have been more aptly named for the part, but it was Michael, the fourth son of Sylvia and Arthur Llewelyn Davies, who was the original 'little half-and-half' – the half-human, half-supernatural Peter Pan, who hopes never to be compelled to grow up and face life's harsh realities. The playwright struck up a friendship with Michael's three older brothers after he encountered them playing in London's Kensington Gardens, an area that would become the first location for the Neverland of his most enduring work. But soon it was Michael who was 'The One'. Touched by his grandfather George du Maurier's 'sixth sense', Michael lived the fantasy life more intensely than any of them, even participating in a hauntingly accurate prediction of events to come as Peter Pan daring himself to drown in the mermaids' lagoon, fascinated by the prospect of an afterlife. Nightmares and an unnatural terror of water ensued, but no one intervened or thought to stop the...