Returning to Never Never Land

This is a photo of a beautiful moving and pop-up book that I was given as a child. Many of our school projects and local trips in the area included a 'Peter Pan' theme due to my hometown's connections with Peter Pan.

Kirriemuir is the birthplace of Peter Pan's creator, JM Barrie. Barrie was a local handloom-weaver's son, born in a little whitewashed cottage at 9 Brechin Road, which is looked after by the National Trust for Scotland Barrie's Birthplace Here Barrie's writing desk, photos and newspaper clippings are on display. Barrie was one of 10 children and while going round the museum its hard to picture 10 growing children running around the small rooms!

The washhouse outside - romantically billed as Barrie's first "theatre" - was apparently the model for the house built by the Lost Boys for Wendy in Never-Never Land.

In the town centre the legacy and connections to Peter Pan is evident with a statue in the centre square. Up on The Hill, based in the Northmuir, is a Peter Pan themed playpark which has recently been installe as it is claimed to be popular with local children. Its funny to think back to primary 4 or 5 when one of the school projects was to design such as themed park and now almost 20 years later it exists... will need to check it out on my next visit.

The visit this weekend will center around catching up with family, eating lots of chocolate and having a decent break from the dreaded dissertation to hopefully bring about a fresh attempt next week...