Neverland

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For other uses, see Neverland (disambiguation).

Neverland is the fictional island featured in Scottish writer, J. M. Barrie's play Peter Pan and subsequent novel Peter and Wendy. While sojourning in Neverland, children may cease to age; therefore, Neverland is often seen as a metaphor for eternal childhood (and childishness), immortality, and escapism. In the earliest drafts of Barrie's play, the island was called Peter's Never Never Never Land, after a district in Australia. When the play was performed, the island was referred to as the Never Never Land; in the published play it was shortened to the Never Land, and in the novel it was spelled as one word - the Neverland. Michael Jackson named his Neverland Ranch in California after it.

Peter led Wendy and her brothers to Neverland by flying "second to the right, and straight on 'till morning" (usually taken to mean "second star to the right"), though it is stated in the novel that Peter made up these directions on the spot, for a voyage he made intuitively. Important denizens of Neverland are Peter Pan, the Lost Boys, a band of Indians, mermaids, Captain Hook and his crew of pirates, and the crocodile who had eaten Hook's hand and wanted the rest of him. Peter is the most important denizen, and the activity of the realm depends on his presence or absence.

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