Product Description

An extraordinary book about the imagination - and the astonishing force of its creative power ... for evil as well as good.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #437275 in Books
• Published on: 2008-07-10
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 336 pages

Sunday Herald, Brian Morton
'...Intelligently and feelingly done'

The Scotsman, The Scotsman: July 16, 2008
'THE PATHOLOGY OF THE ARTIST - the motivations, temperament, clashes between public and private behaviour -is the real subject of Dudgeon's meticulous and highly provocative study of three writers: the creators of Peter Pan, Trilby and Rebecca. He almost sounds as if he's trying to court trouble and outrage with his contentions here that JM Barrie was not only responsible for the death of his brother, David, as a child, but had a hand in the apparent suicide of his adolescent ward, Michael Llewellyn Davies, drove Michael's elder brother Peter (who many mistakenly believed was the original inspiration for Peter Pan) to suicide later in life, corrupted the young Daphne du Maurier and encouraged his close friend, the explorer Captain Scott, to head off for the Antarctic on what was, almost certainly, a suicide mission. It's quite a charge to lay at someone's door, but Dudgeon knows what he's doing and builds his case with precision and coolness... It was when both Daphne herself, and her cousin Peter Llewellyn Davies, finally understood what good old Uncle Jim had been doing to them all these years, that she had her nervous breakdown and he killed himself... It's a gripping read that exposes the dark side to two seemingly innocent activities, writing and loving children... Dudgeon has exposed, in quite a magnificent way, the power and potential for abuse in both.'

The Sunday Times: July 6, 2008
'"May God blast anyone who writes a biography of me," Barrie warned and his curse was surely aimed at Dudgeon, who goes further than any other biographer in his attempt to traverse that gloomy terrain known fondly to Barrie fans as "Barrieness"... Dudgeon argues that we understand him so little because of his "secret", the gripping nature of which propels the narrative of Captivated with the force of a turbo engine... I defy you not to be captivated.'