All audio clips

Date: 1930-06-07
 
 

Barrie making a speech at Kirriemuir in June 1930, and recounting how as a child he had split the lip of his best friend, James Robb. "We were digging up a gooseberry bush in his mother’s garden, and I missed it, but I got him. We then bolted in opposite directions. If Mr Robb is here, he’ll perhaps, after this sermon is over, he will oblige you by showing you my mark." [soundtrack from video clip, where Mr Robb is indeed present, howling with laughter]

 
 
Duration: 0.25 Rating:
Date: 1931-09-02
 
 

Barrie making a speech at the unveiling of Thomas Hardy's statue in Dorchester, 2 September 1931: "Well ladies and gentlemen, you mustn’t make any noise, or the weather will find out that something untoward has happened. When the child Hardy was born, the doctor thought he was dead, and dropped him into a basket. That was an anxious moment, if we had known it, for our country. But a woman stepped forward to make sure, and found that he was alive. If Mr Kennington had chosen to give us a statue of that woman, he wouldn’t have gone far amiss." [soundtrack from video clip]

 
 
Duration: 0.41 Rating:
Date: 1937-00-00
 
 

Nina Boucicault talking about Barrie to the BBC in 1937

  
 
Duration: 0.31 Rating:
Date: 1941-12-00
 
 

Peter Pan was revived annually from 1905 until World War 2, when the blitz was deemed too dangerous a risk for young audiences (most of whom had been evacuated). In order to fill the gap, Jean Forbes-Robertson consented to record her 1929 performance. This clip is an edited version of Act 1: The Nursery, with Dinah Sheridan as Wendy...

 
 
Duration: 5.22 Rating:
Date: 1941-12-00
 
 

Jean Forbes-Robertson in the 1940 recording of "Peter Pan" - Act 3: The Underground Home

 
 
Duration: 2.33 Rating:
Date: 1941-12-00
 
 

Jean Forbes-Robertson as Peter and Gordon Harker as Hook in the 1940 recording of "Peter Pan" - Act 4: The Pirate Ship

  
 
Duration: 2.42 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talking about emphesyma and smoking

  
 
Duration: 1.09 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's annecdote about working for Winston Churchill's election campaign in the 20's.

  
 
Duration: 1.43 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico on Gielgud and Olivier wanting to play Hook in Peter Pan

  
 
Duration: 00.41 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico’s classic story about Barrie giving the rights of "Peter Pan" to the Great Ormond Street Hospital. According to the Hospital, parts of it should be taken with a large pinch of salt.

  
 
Duration: 3.51 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico speculating on why Barrie gave Peter Pan to the Great Ormond Street in particular - his connection with Elizabeth Lucas and the children’s hospital at Bettancourt - Audrey Lucas and Michael.

  
 
Duration: 01.55 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico stressing Barrie's sense of humour (with promptings from his wife Mary) while giving an imitation of how he'd rock from side to side while stirring his coffee. His macabre humour so often misunderstood - or missed altogether.

  
 
Duration: 1.30 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico describes Barrie stirring his coffee while his wife Mary remembers how her father (Lord Northbourne)used to call him "poor little man".

  
 
Duration: 0.39 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's criticism of Janet Dunbar's biography ["J M Barrie: the Man Behind the Image", 1970] that it fails to communicate Barrie's humour and what wonderful company he was 99% of the time.

  
 
Duration: 1.24 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's wife Mary's belief that it was Barrie's great stroke of luck at being "given a ready-made family"

  
 
Duration: 0.43 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico on Michael being "close to a genius"

  
 
Duration: 0.16 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico suggesting that Sharon and I visit Lord (Bob) Boothby: "I think a pretty ghastly fellow, but he had an absolute worship of Michael" ...!

  
 
Duration: 1.38 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico on Barrie's "tremendous move into snobbery", largely on account of Eton and Cynthia Asquith

  
 
Duration: 1.24 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talking about Gerrie and the surviving copy of The Boy Castaways

  
 
Duration: 00.27 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Prompted by a letter from Michael to Mary Hodgson ("the most important thing in our lives in those days"), Nico tells how when Michael went to Eton he cried for the first two years "whereas I was happy from the first five minutes."

 
 
Duration: 0.33 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Looking at a photocopy of Barrie's passport, giving his height as 5' 3.5", Nico remembers his delight while at Eton that Barrie could never have got into tails

  
 
Duration: 0.21 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talks about Mary Rose's island - "the closest thing to my heart." (The database includes a number of photos I took of the island in 1976 - on Loch Voshimid in the Outer Hebrides. Just search for "mary rose")

  
 
Duration: 2.38 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talking about the "wonderful holidays" in Scotland - Scourie in 1911, Amhuinnsuidh in 1912, Killiecrankie in 1913, the Bridge of Orchy in 1914...

  
 
Duration: 0.47 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

... until the last holiday on Eilean Shona, with Michael in 1920, which Barrie again rented for Nico's honeymoon with Mary in 1926. Sharon and I visited it in 1976 ... and I stayed there for three magical days with Karen in 2001, a week before my son Anno was killed. "Eilean Shona, the island that likes to be visited..."

  
 
Duration: 0.37 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico taking about Ammhuinsuidh's various owners

  
 
Duration: 01.04 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

How Gilmour used to "drive Uncle Jim absolutely batty" by calling "A Kiss for Cinderella" The Kiss...

  
 
Duration: 0.24 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico and Peter's disillusionment about the publishing trade

  
 
Duration: 01.15 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico showing us the "Record of Breaks" between Michael and Barrie, recorded in the front of "The Complete Billiard Player" in 1912 (see margin illustration in JMB&TLB, p197)

  
 
Duration: 1.47 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Barrie's love of games in general and cricket in particular

  
 
Duration: 1.04 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico emphasizing Barrie's love of games, in particular, "eggcap" ...

  
 
Duration: 1.09 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico on Frank Thurston (Barrie's butler)

  
 
Duration: 00.16 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico reminiscing about Barrie’s "manservant" Harry Brown, a guided tour through Adelphi Terrace, and an amusing story about Harry Brown and Maggie Barrie’s son, the chess champion Willie Winter. Not for the scatalogically faint-hearted...

 
 
Duration: 1.58 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico describes Barrie's occasional moods, and the hope that he'd be in a good one when bringing a friend back to the Adelphi

  
 
Duration: 1.26 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico gives a guided tour through Barrie's Adelphi Terrace top-floor flat

  
 
Duration: 00.46 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico showing us Frohman's gift to Michael, aged 13: a book on cricket, with "Admit Two to the Duke of Yorks" written in Frohman's blue penicl on the title page.

  
 
Duration: 0.13 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico showing us "the best picture ever taken of Uncle Jim" - Barrie standing with Luath, photographed by Nicholson for Nana's costume (search for "Luath" in the database)

  
 
Duration: 0.34 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico describing the photograph of Barrie (as Hook) wrestling with Michael, dressed as Peter Pan - the photo on our homepage.

  
 
Duration: 00.11 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico remembering the casting sessions for the silent film of Peter Pan - how he rooted for Marion Davies - and his disappointment that his room at Eton was not used for Captain Hook's cabin.

  
 
Duration: 0.46 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico rattling off the cast list of stars surrounding Barrie on the roof of the Colliseum in 1916 for a charity performance of "The Admirable Crichton" - see the Etcetera (&c) home page, or search for "Colliseum 1916" in the database for a key.

  
 
Duration: 0.45 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico putting "Mary Rose" at the top of his list of Barrie's plays.

  
 
Duration: 0.25 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico agreeing with me that the end of "The Lost Boys" should be at Michael's death in 1920.

  
 
Duration: 0.24 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

"However conceited or vain it may be," says Nico, "it completely made his life having these five boys"...

  
 
Duration: 1.00 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's wife Mary talking about Michael.

  
 
Duration: 1.04 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico describes Mary Rose's island, and remembers standing with Barrie when he first had the idea for the play in 1912. See JMB&TLB p206 - or in colour in the photo gallery.

  
 
Duration: 00.40 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico remembering Mary Rose's island - "far too small to land on". Not so - Sharon and I did just that in 1978, though admittedly there was barely room for the pair of us - see photos in the database.

 
 
Duration: 0.36 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico on the rights to Barrie's plays, and Cynthia Asquith.

  
 
Duration: 02.30 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico’s belief that all Michael’s letters will have been destroyed - although it was months before we had Peter’s word for it, in a letter to Mary Hodgson (June 11 1953, in the database).

  
 
Duration: 0.21 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talking about Mary Hodgson - "a wholly unique woman. ... She was unquestionably the most important person in my life." Nico hesitates in telling a ghastly story about her - until encouraged by Sharon and I (continues on next clip)

  
 
Duration: 1.46 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico speculating on the options open to the family after Sylvia's death - Crompton Llewelyn Davies.

  
 
Duration: 01.05 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico remembering Emma du Maurier

  
 
Duration: 00.24 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Not without relish, Nico tells the comic/tragic story of Jack and Gerrie’s honeymoon experience with Mary Hodgson at Campden Hill Square.

 
 
Duration: 2.50 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico continues talking about Mary Hodgson, and how she wouldn't meet Nico's Mary for fear of repeating the episode with Gerrie.

  
 
Duration: 00.33 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico, on how he would have loved to have been an actor, and how Barrie fobade him joining the OUDS at Oxford

 
 
Duration: 01.10 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico on Mary Hodgson, her character and family in Morecambe

  
 
Duration: 00.54 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's story about losing his tortoise aged 10, and Harry Brown finding it for him

  
 
Duration: 01.16 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talks about visiting Mary Hodgson's family in Morecambe, her brother Tom introduced him to music hall - Mary Hodgson's horror

  
 
Duration: 04.24 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talking about Barrie staying at Campden Hill Square - putting the furniture into store.

 
 
Duration: 00.58 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talks about Denis Mackail, and making him cut his 1941 biography on Barrie, "The Story of JMB"

  
 
Duration: 1.21 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talking about Barrie's visits to Eton

  
 
Duration: 0.48 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's wife Mary regarding Michael as a highbrow

  
 
Duration: 0.11 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's love of music and playing the piano, unlike his brothers. His story of going off with Michael to buy their first gramophone records ...

  
 
Duration: 03.03 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Barrie's "tremendous flirtation" with American review, resulting in "Hello Ragtime" which Nico saw 20 times!

  
 
Duration: 0,20 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

None of the Davies boys ever lost the Peter Pan tag, but Nico was the only one who "liked it rather than disliked it. Peter loathed it..."

  
 
Duration: 0.14 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico looking at photos of Eilean Shona

 
 
Duration: 01.38 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico looking at photos of the Lewises and Glan Hafren

  
 
Duration: 00.58 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico looking through the Glan Hafren photo album, with Medina and Eiluned Lewis, Michael, Nico and JMB

  
 
Duration: 0.41 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Various nick names - Michael always Michael (never Mike), Barrie never "James" - usually Jimmy or sometimes Sir Jazz

  
 
Duration: 0.52 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico looking through photos taken at Glan Hafren with Barrie, Michael and the Lewises

  
 
Duration: 00.42 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico showing photos of Nico and Michael taken at Egerston with the Olivers.

  
 
Duration: 00.41 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico took the photo of Barrie on EIlean Shona allegedly writing "Mary Rose" (see JMB&TLB p287 or the database). Nico now thinks he's writing "A Kiss for Cinderella", but he might just as easily have been writing the screenplay for "Peter Pan" (the one Paramount binned)

  
 
Duration: 0.45 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico telling how Barrie used to predict the length of a cold by how far he cough out his false tooth - only to find that the story is in "The Little White Bird". [Apologies for poor sound]

  
 
Duration: 0,42 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico on Jack's attitude towards Barrie - his later resentment.

  
 
Duration: 01.46 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talks about Jack's retirement, and the fate of his children.

  
 
Duration: 04.35 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico's relationship with Peter

  
 
Duration: 00.40 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico cautioning a vist to Gerrie Llewelyn Davies

  
 
Duration: 00.46 Rating:
Date: 1976-01-01
 
 

Nico talking about Peter's three sons: Rivvy, George and Peter (jnr). All three were doing well - in 1978. Tragically, all three inherited their mother's wasting disease, Huntington's chorea, and by 1995, all three were dead: most tragically, Peter jnr, who committed suicide rather than endure a living death...

  
 
Duration: 1.22 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Boothby castigating Rupert Buxton, who drowned with Michael at Oxford. Nico didn’t agree with a word Boothby said, and the obituary for Buxton in The Harrovian (in the database) paints a very different portrait to the one presented here by Boothby.

 
 
Duration: 1.06 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Lord Boothby talking about his visit to St Malo in France with Michael and Roger Senhouse in 1919.

 
 
Duration: 01.16 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Lord Boothby talking about Barrie's impotence - C P Snow's comments

  
 
Duration: 00.14 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Lord Boothby seeing Barrie after Michael's death

  
 
Duration: 00.14 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Lord Boothby talking about holidays with Michael in Scotland

  
 
Duration: 00.54 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Lord Boothby talking about Michael, his possible homosexuality, the overbearing nature of Adelphi Terrace - Michael's gratitude towards Barrie - Barrie's impotence.

  
 
Duration: 02.33 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Lord Boothby talking with Sharon about Michael's time at Oxford.

  
 
Duration: 00.39 Rating:
Date: 1976-02-00
 
 

Lord Boothby talking about Michael's literary influences. Was he a romantic? The effect that Michael's death had on just about everyone, particularly Roger Senhouse.

  
 
Duration: 00.55 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-00
 
 

Sebastian Earl on Michael's lack of girl-friends at Oxford being "perfectly normal".

  
 
Duration: 02:19 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-00
 
 

Sebastain Earl on Michael's character and alleged suicide: "The thing is too absurd for words!"

  
 
Duration: 01:34 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-00
 
 

Sebastian Earl remembering Gerald du Maurier - and a delightful incident with Tallulah Bankhead....

 
 
Duration: 0.56 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie Llewelyn Davies (Jack's widow) talking about Nico

  
 
Duration: 0.26 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie talking about Michael, Jack and Nico

 
 
Duration: 0.40 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie's feeling that George Booth might have done more for the boys once Barrie took over their lives.

  
 
Duration: 1.12 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie talks about Barrie's relationship with the Davies boys being "unhealthy" - "everyone else thought so" ...

  
 
Duration: 0.51 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie Llewelyn Davies talks about Mary Hodgson and her own impossible position at Campden Hill Square...

  
 
Duration: 2.49 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie remembering how Mary Hodgson angered Jack by destroying his collection of smutty stories!

 
 
Duration: 0.26 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie's account of Mary Hodgson slipping a certain note under Jack's bedroom door

  
 
Duration: 0.29 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie remembering the extraordinary episode of Barrie telling her about Uncle Guy [du Maurier]'s death in 1915.

  
 
Duration: 1.07 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie's impression that Barrie liked her.

  
 
Duration: 0.28 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie remembering her engagement to Jack

  
 
Duration: 0.49 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie remembers the first time she met Barrie, and her marriage to Jack

  
 
Duration: 0.49 Rating:
Date: 1976-03-17
 
 

Gerrie on Jack calling Barrie "the Bart"