Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens - Illustrated by Arthur Rackham

Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens is a charming story of J.M. Barrie’s much-adored character Peter Pan, on his adventures through Kensington Gardens as an infant boy.

Part baby, part bird, the seven-day-old Peter escapes from the window of his London home to explore the wider world and finds himself stranded in Kensington Gardens, unable to fly. On his magical adventures through the gardens, he encounters many fairies, animals, and lost children who help him along the way. While his adventures are full of exciting twists and turns, he begins to miss his mother. Will Peter ever make it back home?

Predating Barrie’s most famous work Peter Pan, or, The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (1904), the text of this work was taken from his lesser-known story, The Little White Bird (1902), where Peter’s character was first introduced.

The work is accompanied by a series of dazzling colour and black and white illustrations – by a master of the craft, Arthur Rackham (1867-1939). One of the most celebrated painters of the British Golden Age of Illustration (which encompassed the years from 1850 until the start of the First World War), Rackham’s artistry is, quite simply, unparalleled. Presented alongside the text, his illustrations further refine and elucidate this delicately written children’s classic.