Neverland

Neverland
Illustration of Peter Pan playing the pipes, with Neverland in the background, by F. D. Bedford, from the novel Peter and Wendy published in 1911.
Created by	J. M. Barrie
Type	island
First appearance	Peter Pan or the Boy Who Would Not Grow Up (1904)

Neverland is a fictional location featured in the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them. It is an imaginary faraway place, where Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys and other mythical creatures and beings live. Although not all people who come to Neverland cease to age, its best known resident famously refused to grow up, and it is often used as a metaphor for eternal childhood (and childishness), immortality, and escapism. It was first introduced as "the Never Never Land" in the theatre play Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up by Scottish writer J. M. Barrie, first staged in 1904.

In his 1911 novelisation Peter and Wendy, Barrie referred to "the Neverland", and its many variations "the Neverlands". In the earliest drafts of Barrie's play, the island was called "Peter's Never Never Never Land", a name possibly influenced by "the Never Never", a contemporary term for outback Australia. In the 1928 published version of the script, it was shortened to "the Never Land". Neverland has been featured prominently in subsequent works, either adapting Barrie's works or expanding upon them. These Neverlands sometimes vary in nature from the original.

Barrie explains that the Neverlands are found in the minds of children, and that although each is "always more or less an island", and they have a family resemblance, they are not the same from one child to the next. For example, John Darling's had "a lagoon with flamingos flying over it" while his little brother Michael's had "a flamingo with lagoons flying over it". The novel further explains that the Neverlands are compact enough that adventures are never far between. It says that a map of a child's mind would resemble a map of Neverland, with no boundaries at all.