who is left alive of the davies familly now ?

[whippersnaper]

just wondered how many descendents of the davies are left andrew ?

were there any movies made of  the 5 ?

ive seen most of your documentaries over the years andrew, they only lasted about 15mins each i believe, but because they were so short your passion on the subject always came thru :-)

loved the one about the missing notes on barrie...


can i ask has the barrie research taken over your life ?
has it coloured your life ?

it just seems that you are so emersed in this story, so knowledgeable, that maybe its part of you now?



sorry my threads are too long,


one last thing, the davies story is so full of tragedy, that it would not be unbelievable if barrie had gone off and uncovered an egyptian tomb complete with curse in the story...


but im being flippant

thanks for your comments, always valuable :-)

[andrew]

The BBC made "The Lost Boys" back in 1978 - the trilogy I wrote before writing the biography. It's now on DVD (from Amazon) with a so-called bonus of me rabbiting for about half an hour.
No, Barrie's not quite taken over my life - but Napoleon has!

[Rebecca]

I think Nico's daughter, Laura Duguid, said in her feedback to this website that she is the only surviving family member of The Five. But considering how many siblings Arthur and Sylvia had, there are probably several great-nephews and -nieces still living. Back in October, one of them spoke out in an AP article, "Depp's New Film Sparks Outcry Among Barrie's Family":

While the characters in the Barrie biopic are based on real people, Hollywood's version of events have led the classic author's family to complain about its authenticity -- including the onscreen relationship between Barrie and his wife Sylvia, played by Kate Winslet. The movie depicts Sylvia first meeting Barrie shortly after the death of her husband to cancer -- although in reality her spouse Arthur Llewelyn Davies was still alive. Sylvia's great-niece Lady Tessa Montgomery says, "It's a pity they didn't stick to the facts. Films have a habit of rewriting history. People rewrite even slightly the story or a character and often the family find it's not the person they remember or know about."

Personally, I think this article was rather overdone. No other family members seemed to have had a problem with Finding Neverland, and Laura Duguid even appears it. She's the woman in the black dress between Johnny Depp (Barrie) and Freddie Highmore (Peter Davies).

(http://www.ohjohnny.net/neverland/caps/Tfn-568.jpg)

Laura also has an interview on the DVD of the 2003 Peter Pan. And if I remember correctly, Andrew's on it, too.

[andrew]

You're quite right - Laura is the only Davies left alive who "knew" Barrie (there's a photo of her being held by JMB in my book - also search for "Laura" in the database for more pix). I agree that the Observer piece was wildly overstated - and set up by the journalist. He rang me to try and solicit a quote trashing the film, but I wouldn't be drawn - thus didn't get mentioned in the article!  It was the Du Maurier side who were quoted - Kits and others. Arthur and Sylvia have dozens of other descendants out and about, but none who knew Barrie.... (a google search will reveal many!)