Latest news with #JMBarrie
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Britain's most famous authors form a cricket team
On a summer's day in 1887, in the middle of a Surrey village green, you may just have heard the men behind Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh crying in unison: "Howzat?!" It could seem far-fetched to imagine some of Britain's most celebrated authors lined up in a slip cordon, but it was entirely possible as Peter Pan author JM Barrie had enlisted fellow writers AA Milne and Arthur Conan Doyle to join his cricket team. And on a cricket pitch near Shere, Barrie's band of illustrious authors came together for the first time for their joint sporting pursuit. But while their writing lives on for generations, their cricketing ability, by their own account, left much to be desired. "They got absolutely trashed," said Andrew Baker, a Shere historian. "Everyone else took it seriously and they came along being much less serious. "Some of them didn't get a lot of runs or wickets. Barrie was very proud of occasionally scoring one run." Formed by Barrie, the team was named the Allahakhbarries, a play on the Arabic phrase meaning "God is great" and the author's surname. Pointing to his humour and recognition of his cricketing ability, however, the name reportedly came from a mistaken belief that the phrase actually meant "heaven help us". In their first game, on a pitch in Albury Heath, Barrie and his band of authors were beaten by the landlord of The White Horse in Shere, who as a handy cricketer scored many of the opposition's runs and took many of their wickets. The Allahakbarries, regarded by some as the first celebrity cricket team, originally included Barrie and Conan Doyle alongside Jeeves and Wooster creator PG Wodehouse. AA Milne joined later and unsuccessful attempts were made to recruit Rudyard Kipling and HG Wells. Of the group, Conan Doyle stood out for his sporting aptitude. Having also featured for the Lords-based Marylebone Cricket Club, the Sherlock Holmes' writer's ability towered over that of his teammates. On Barrie, Mr Baker said: "He wasn't an athletic man, he was short, asthmatic and wore glasses. "There's a picture of him bowling left handed where his arm is not quite at the vertical." Writing in a booklet on the team, Barrie recalled the tails of the team, including allegedly only learning on the way to a game that a new player did not know which side of the bat to use to hit the ball. The team played semi-regularly until the outbreak of World War One, when they disbanded. In his diary, Barrie reportedly wrote: "The Last Cricket Match. One or two days before war declared – my anxiety and premonition – boys gaily playing cricket at Auch, seen from my window. "I know they're to suffer. I see them dropping out one by one, fewer and fewer." Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. Inside the signal box standing the test of time The 19th Century church sealed for Second Coming
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Britain's most famous authors form a cricket team
JM Barrie, second right, bowls as part of his all-star author cricket team [Supplied] On a summer's day in 1887, in the middle of a Surrey village green, you may just have heard the men behind Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh crying in unison: "Howzat?!" It could seem far-fetched to imagine some of Britain's most celebrated authors lined up in a slip cordon, but it was entirely possible as Peter Pan author JM Barrie had enlisted fellow writers AA Milne and Arthur Conan Doyle to join his cricket team. Advertisement And on a cricket pitch near Shere, Barrie's band of illustrious authors came together for the first time for their joint sporting pursuit. But while their writing lives on for generations, their cricketing ability, by their own account, left much to be desired. "They got absolutely trashed," said Andrew Baker, a Shere historian. "Everyone else took it seriously and they came along being much less serious. "Some of them didn't get a lot of runs or wickets. Barrie was very proud of occasionally scoring one run." 'Heaven help us' Formed by Barrie, the team was named the Allahakhbarries, a play on the Arabic phrase meaning "God is great" and the author's surname. Advertisement Pointing to his humour and recognition of his cricketing ability, however, the name reportedly came from a mistaken belief that the phrase actually meant "heaven help us". In their first game, on a pitch in Albury Heath, Barrie and his band of authors were beaten by the landlord of The White Horse in Shere, who as a handy cricketer scored many of the opposition's runs and took many of their wickets. The Allahakbarries, regarded by some as the first celebrity cricket team, originally included Barrie and Conan Doyle alongside Jeeves and Wooster creator PG Wodehouse. AA Milne joined later and unsuccessful attempts were made to recruit Rudyard Kipling and HG Wells. AA Milne, middle row first left, and JM Barrie, middle row third left, lined up in a team photo [Supplied] Of the group, Conan Doyle stood out for his sporting aptitude. Having also featured for the Lords-based Marylebone Cricket Club, the Sherlock Holmes' writer's ability towered over that of his teammates. Advertisement On Barrie, Mr Baker said: "He wasn't an athletic man, he was short, asthmatic and wore glasses. "There's a picture of him bowling left handed where his arm is not quite at the vertical." Writing in a booklet on the team, Barrie recalled the tails of the team, including allegedly only learning on the way to a game that a new player did not know which side of the bat to use to hit the ball. The team played semi-regularly until the outbreak of World War One, when they disbanded. In his diary, Barrie reportedly wrote: "The Last Cricket Match. One or two days before war declared – my anxiety and premonition – boys gaily playing cricket at Auch, seen from my window. Advertisement "I know they're to suffer. I see them dropping out one by one, fewer and fewer." Follow BBC Surrey on Facebook, on X, and on Instagram. Send your story ideas to southeasttoday@ or WhatsApp us on 08081 002250. More on this story
BBC News
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Peter Pan and Sherlock Holmes authors form Surrey cricket team
On a summer's day in 1887, in the middle of a Surrey village green, you may just have heard the men behind Sherlock Holmes, Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh crying in unison: "Howzat?!"It could seem far-fetched to imagine some of Britain's most celebrated authors lined up in a slip cordon, but it was entirely possible as Peter Pan author JM Barrie had enlisted fellow writers AA Milne and Arthur Conan Doyle to join his cricket on a cricket pitch near Shere, Barrie's band of illustrious authors came together for the first time for their joint sporting while their writing lives on for generations, their cricketing ability, by their own account, left much to be desired. "They got absolutely trashed," said Andrew Baker, a Shere historian."Everyone else took it seriously and they came along being much less serious."Some of them didn't get a lot of runs or wickets. Barrie was very proud of occasionally scoring one run." 'Heaven help us' Formed by Barrie, the team was named the Allahakhbarries, a play on the Arabic phrase meaning "God is great" and the author's to his humour and recognition of his cricketing ability, however, the name reportedly came from a mistaken belief that the phrase actually meant "heaven help us".In their first game, on a pitch in Albury Heath, Barrie and his band of authors were beaten by the landlord of The White Horse in Shere, who as a handy cricketer scored many of the opposition's runs and took many of their Allahakbarries, regarded by some as the first celebrity cricket team, originally included Barrie and Conan Doyle alongside Jeeves and Wooster creator PG Milne joined later and unsuccessful attempts were made to recruit Rudyard Kipling and HG Wells. Of the group, Conan Doyle stood out for his sporting aptitude. Having also featured for the Lords-based Marylebone Cricket Club, the Sherlock Holmes' writer's ability towered over that of his Barrie, Mr Baker said: "He wasn't an athletic man, he was short, asthmatic and wore glasses."There's a picture of him bowling left handed where his arm is not quite at the vertical."Writing in a booklet on the team, Barrie recalled the tails of the team, including allegedly only learning on the way to a game that a new player did not know which side of the bat to use to hit the team played semi-regularly until the outbreak of World War One, when they his diary, Barrie reportedly wrote: "The Last Cricket Match. One or two days before war declared – my anxiety and premonition – boys gaily playing cricket at Auch, seen from my window. "I know they're to suffer. I see them dropping out one by one, fewer and fewer."
Daily Record
17-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Record
Scottish mansion that served as an inspiration for Peter Pan set to reopen as café
JM Barrie's time playing at Moat Brae as a teenager helped inspire his creation of Peter Pan A Dumfries mansion that served as the inspiration for one of the world's most beloved children's stories is set to open its doors again. Moat Brae, the childhood playground of author JM Barrie, is preparing for a new chapter following its sale earlier this year. It is hoped that the stately home will be able to reopen by mid-July, nearly a year after its sudden closure. Built in 1823, the elegant Greek revival villa stands two storeys high above a raised basement and commands five bays. Moat Brae was among the earliest houses built on what became George Street and occupies a generous plot sloping down to the River Nith. It was here, in the house and its enchanted garden, that Barrie spent formative years from the ages of 13 to 18. Those days of adventure would go on to shape one of the most iconic tales in history. Barrie was a student at Dumfries Academy while living at Moat Brae. Reflecting on the time, Barrie once described the grounds of the estate as "enchanted land" and said they were a big inspiration for his most famous work. He said: 'When shades of night began to fall, certain young mathematicians shed their triangles and crept up trees and down walls in an odyssey which was long after to become the play of Peter Pan. "For our escapades in a certain Dumfries garden, which is enchanted land to me, were certainly the genesis of that nefarious work.' Moat Brae later became a national centre for children's literature, opening in 2019 after a major fundraising drive. But the dream was short-lived. After navigating a Covid shutdown and struggling with rising costs, reduced funding and lower-than-expected visitor numbers, the Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust went into liquidation, prompting its closure in August 2024. The property was put up for sale and was bought by a property developer in March this year. Since then, efforts have been quietly underway to breathe new life into the historic site. While the main building will be converted into office space, part of the site is set to welcome the public once more in a different guise. Curtis Silver, originally from Eastbourne, has taken over the café space in the building's extension and is aiming for a summer launch. 'The old building, the Moat Brae building, is going to be offices,' he told the BBC. 'The extension – where the café is – is what I am taking over. I saw this opportunity and I am now moving here to put all of my energy and passion into it.' Join the Daily Record WhatsApp community! Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today. You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland. No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team. All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join Community' and you're in! If you're on a desktop, simply scan the QR code above with your phone and click 'Join Community'. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. To leave our community click on the name at the top of your screen and choose 'exit group'. His new venture, Pans Café, will serve high-quality brunches and takeaway options, with a focus on appealing to office workers in the area. While Moat Brae's future as a literary centre remains uncertain, Silver said there may still be room for a nod to its magical past. 'One room in the property could be set aside to celebrate the origins of the Peter Pan story,' he added, 'but that plan was yet to be finalised.'
New York Times
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Dave Barry Is 77 and Still a Clown, Here to Amuse You
'All children, except one, grow up,' J.M. Barrie wrote in 'Peter Pan.' Let's make it two. Dave Barry has a new memoir titled 'Class Clown.' On the back flap, the floppy-haired author, now 77, looks all of 45. It's as if he's sealed in the amber of his own booger jokes. His prose style hasn't matured either, thank heavens. It's as ideally sophomoric as ever, if more rueful around the edges, what with civilization aflame and all that. 'Who is Dave Barry?' young readers may ask, alas. Let me take you back to the early 1980s, the twilight of the era of the great syndicated columnists, those ink-stained champions whose work was published in hundreds of newspapers. Art Buchwald, Erma Bombeck and Russell Baker were among them, and they were by and large terrific, but they were generally wry rather than laugh-out-loud funny. Barry brought the laugh-out-loud funny. Here, for example, is his advice in a piece on wilderness survival, written before he was syndicated: Newspapers were a daily diet of Serious Things, and Barry was profoundly unserious. He increased the gaiety of the nation. A day that began with 'Doonesbury' and a Dave Barry column had a better chance of being a good day. The New York Times, being serious indeed, did not run either one of these things, so it could seem like a pot-au-feu without its gherkins. I felt a bit smug when Barry went national, because I'd been on to him early. I spent the second half of my youth in Southwest Florida, and my parents were subscribers to The Miami Herald. Barry got his major-newspaper start writing for that publication's Sunday magazine, Tropic. When I went up north to college, in those pre-internet years, people would mail me clippings of his best stuff, including columns on exploding toilets and cows. He was the LeBron James of exploding toilet humor. 'Class Clown,' as funny books go, is a home run — albeit a shallow, wind-aided home run. Barry leans heavily on old clips of his writing to fill this book up, and that's fine, but near the end the bag of leftovers grows soggy. Barry has bragged about hating to work very hard, though it is difficult work indeed to give your prose this kind of easy, goofy feeling. Barry was born in 1947 in Armonk, N.Y., 30 miles north of Manhattan. His father, a Presbyterian minister, was the executive director of the New York City Mission Society, a social-services nonprofit for impoverished children. His dad loved the humorist Robert Benchley and kept his books in the house. Barry read these when he was 11 or 12 and they influenced his writing style. His mother, who had worked on the Manhattan Project as a secretary, seemed to others like a typical suburban housewife. 'But she was not like other moms,' Barry writes. 'She had an edge — a sharp, dark sense of humor coiled inside her, always ready to strike.' He derived his comic sensibility from her. Of course, 'funny isn't the same thing as happy,' he writes. His mother was prone to depression, and not long after her husband's death in 1984 she died by suicide. Barry was a wiseass at school. After teachers encouraged him, he wrote humor columns for both his high school and college newspapers. The college was Haverford in Pennsylvania — he thinks the school's official motto should be 'We Never Heard of You, Either.' He grew his hair long, smoked his share of pot and played in a party band called Federal Duck. The band was, to him, the best thing about being in college. He graduated in 1969 and escaped the draft by becoming a conscientious objector. That his father was a clergyman, and that Haverford had Quaker connections, did not hurt. He has some guilt about this, alongside anger that America was in Vietnam in the first place. Barry worked for two summers in college as an intern at Congressional Quarterly in Washington, a job he got through family connections. He fell into newspaper work in his 20s, becoming the city editor then news editor for a suburban Philadelphia paper. 'I found my identity as a newspaper guy,' he writes, 'which deep down inside I will always be.' He took an unlikely 7-year detour into teaching business writing to the employees of major companies. It made him a better writer: He began writing humor columns again in his spare time. Behind the world's silver linings lie dark clouds, but also stupid clouds, and those only Barry seemed to see. These columns appeared in smaller papers, then in larger ones. The Herald officially brought him on in 1983, and he was off like a Jet Ski, with flat water ahead of him and lively wake behind. The Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary came in 1988. A photo of Barry being ecstatically hugged by his son ran in some newspapers. The photo still makes Barry laugh because his son was not celebrating his father's big day — he was reacting to the fact that Barry had just promised him a Nintendo. That son is now an investigative journalist at The Wall Street Journal and has received a Pulitzer of his own. Barry had legions of fans, some of them credentialed. In 1991 Justice John Paul Stevens wrote to him on Supreme Court letterhead, enclosing an advertisement for the anti-flatulence product Beano, suggesting it might spark a column. It did! Barry 'conducted a scientific test of Beano under the most demanding possible field conditions — a Mexican restaurant' and wrote about the results. A few newspapers declined to print the column, calling it tasteless. Barry got funny revenge in print on those papers, but you'll have to read the book to find out how. The Beano column was, to borrow Lady Saphir's words from Gilbert and Sullivan's 'Patience,' 'nonsense, yes, perhaps — but, oh, what precious nonsense.' Barry kept his Sunday column until he retired in 2005, worried that he'd shot his bolt. He wrote a ton of books, including the novel 'Big Trouble' (1999), which was turned into a movie that was sunk by Sept. 11 — 'not a good time to release a wacky movie comedy, especially one with a suitcase nuke on an airplane' — and a reinterpretation of 'Peter Pan,' co-written with Ridley Pearson, that became an award-winning Broadway play. 'Dave's World,' a sitcom loosely based on Barry's columns and books, ran for four seasons in the '90s on CBS. Barry has mixed feelings about that show. He's most enjoyed being a core member, alongside Stephen King, Amy Tan and others, in the Rock Bottom Remainders, an almost competent all-writer band that has jammed with Warren Zevon and Bruce Springsteen. This book never goes too deep. Barry had two early marriages before marrying his current wife in 1996, for example, but no details are provided. He feels like a lucky man to have been paid for doing something that he loves. But he's contemplative when people tell him he's made the world a better place because of his writing. 'My response to these well-intentioned people has always been: Thanks, but I'd probably be doing this even if it made the world a worse place,' he writes. 'It's pretty much the only thing I know how to do. It's in my DNA. I'm a class clown.'
