If The Wind in The Willows was a book intended for adults, then possibly the definitive childhood character from The Golden Age of Children’s Writing’ is Peter Pan. Again, there is a conflict arising from the adult perception of what it means to be a child, or if the subtext of the story is one intended for children as readers. Here, a wilful and spirited boy replaces the image of Pan as a horned, half man, half goat god. Fairies and mermaids replace the Nymphs of mythology, and the shepherds who worshipped Pan are now a tribe of lost boys.

Peter Pan is first introduced when ‘Mrs. Darling is tidying up her children’s minds’ as Barrie describes’ a child’s’ mind, which is not only confused, … it keeps going round all the time’ (Location 84 of 2074, Peter Pan and Wendy, Kindle edition.) Which suggests the author ultimately regards the minds of children and the state of childhood as a separate and unordered state, in need of organisation. Like Mr. Darling, Barrie feels compelled to reinstate order.

We learn Peter Pan comes from Neverland, a place where each child has their version of Neverland, seen in the moments before they go to sleep. Peter lives with the fairies and ‘when Children died he went part of the way with them so that they would not be frightened.’ Within the story, there are fights to the death, and a reference to Peter Pan thinning out the lost boys, though we do not know how this is achieved. The story suggests Peter kills for fun. If a literal interpretation, then he is cruel and controlling. One can also read Peter Pan is a representation of the fleeting dreams children have before deep sleep, imaginings fed by pocket magazines of the day, playing out pirates and Indians? An illustration, At Home in The Nursery, By George Cruickshank, from 1835, depicts children at play with a range of battle inspired toys. War and death are trivialised by play. Even before the story is established, the author makes the distinction that ‘Children have the strangest adventures without being troubled by them’.