One can tell the protagonist is Barrie himself from the remarkable 1800s Scots accent of the secluded one-room home teacher who is struggling to make ends meet while receiving a meager stipend from the people and facing review due to low enrollment. The rambling story reads like a diary of everyday life in the weaving community of Thrums, which is brought to life by the residents' vehement opposition to other churches in the area. Tragic stories like the one about the young guy who went to a nearby town and fell in love, but when he returned to Thrums, he couldn't remember her name or the name and place of his love, and so he passed away in old age unfulfilled in his fantasy. The town of Thrums and, more specifically, the members of one of its four churches, are at the center of the entire collection of tales. The Auld Licht Kirk, at the time, contained more ardent Calvinists than any other organization in Scotland. This community, its practices, and customs demonstrate that it is possible to lead a disciplined, hardworking life and still manage to scrape by.
Scottish author Sir James Matthew Barrie, 1st Baronet, is most known for creating Peter Pan. He was also a playwright. He was raised and educated in Scotland before relocating to London, where he penned a number of well-received books and plays. There, he met the Llewelyn Davies brothers, who later served as the inspiration for his works Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up, a 1904 West End "fairy play," about an ageless boy and an ordinary girl named Wendy who have adventures in the fantasy setting of Neverland. The story of a baby boy who has magical adventures in Kensington Gardens was first included in Barrie's 1902 adult novel The Little White Bird. Despite his ongoing success as a writer, Peter Pan eclipsed all of his earlier works and is credited with making the name Wendy well-known. After the deaths of the Davies boys' parents, Barrie adopted them clandestinely. George V created Barrie a baronet on June 14, 1913, and in the New Year's Honours of 1922, he was inducted into the Order of Merit.
