No fairytale: the real children behind fiction’s best-loved characters

I had loved those children long before I knew they existed. There was the little boy in an approximation of hunters’ skins, posing victorious; the dark-haired girl with the offset gaze; and the big-eyed, dimple-chinned seven-year-old in a soft sweater, clutching the teddy bear that would become more famous than he was.

Michael Llewelyn Davies, Alice Liddell and Christopher Robin Milne became, in different hands, Peter Pan, Alice and Christopher Robin. What began as envy — the wish to be noticed, anointed, written into a story — shifted into unease. The photographs of Alice started to feel troubling once I noticed the man behind the camera.

JM Barrie moved from stranger in the park to financial supporter and legal guardian of the Llewelyn Davies boys after their parents’ deaths, and Christopher Robin grew up largely with a nanny before boarding school and the humiliation of being known first as a nursery figure.

peter pan, alice liddell, christopher robin, llewelyn davies, jm barrie, teddy bear, photographs, legal guardian, nanny, boarding school