UNITED KINGDOM: Thousands of excited children join Peter Pan treasure hunt and get sneak preview of long-awaited official sequel to the beloved children's novel

London's Kensington Gardens transformed into Peter Pan's Neverland on Saturday (July 15) as thousands of children and their parents descended on its grounds for a Peter Pan treasure hunt. The event, organised by London's Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, also offered visitors a sneak preview of the official sequel to the novel. Children's author Geraldine McCaughrean has finished writing "Peter Pan in Scarlet" and has given the first hints about what happens to Peter and his young friends in the eagerly awaited follow-up to the 1911 original. McCaughrean was chosen amongst 200 authors to write the book and said she was fully aware of the big task that lay in front of her: "Well it was fine given that I was just thinking of it as a bit of fun but but then of course when the news came out that I was doing the competition and everybody was aahhh, that must be very daunting, fancy following in J M Barrie's footsteps and I started to think oh yes, yes it's really scary, and then I thought, ah that's really stupid because I just wanted to get on enjoying writing it - it actually shows if you don't enjoy writing something it shows, and if you do then that shows as well and it was the most tremendous fun to do . really much more fun than I'd been expecting." McCaughrean said she had kept as many of the original characters as possible, including Peter, Wendy, the Lost Boys and Tinker Bell, and the action would be again set in Neverland. She added that she maintained the integrity of the original characters. "The first thing I wanted to be faithful to was JM Barrie's style, and his funny sense of humour so that was what I was aiming for first so if you've read one and then you came onto mine it would feel as if you were in the same world. Then I had to be true to people's ideas of the characters but then again Wendy...she doesn't get much to do in the original so I gave Wendy a bit more to do, I was true to Peter as in , he's not exactly a good little boy, he has his little ways so I wanted to have that dark side in it." Great Ormond Street Hospital, the owner of copyright for "Peter Pan" since 1929, is hoping to raise money from the official sequel before its remaining rights on the novel, in the European Union, run out at the end of 2007. But they will face competition from other adaptations written in the United States, where the veto on the novel does not apply. Disney has already published a prequel to "Peter Pan", called "Peter and the Starcatchers", and will release another adaptation called "Peter and the Shadow Thieves" on Saturday, according to its Web site www.peterandthestarcatchers.com. But McCaughrean said she wasn't worried about the competition: "I don't know what's coming out today but there are good books around and I wish him well because I don't wish a good book unwritten, and yes the whole point is that Great Ormond Street should make a bit." "Peter Pan in Scarlet" will is published on October 5. ENDS.

ITN Source | July 20, 2006

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