"A terrible guilt, associated with an accident in which your brother died, is something you would carry with you for the rest of your life."

Though JM Barrie and Peter Pan haven't got loads to do with our peice, JM Barrie does have a direct link to  our main character, Brenda. When JM Barrie was 6 years old, his brother David - 13 years old and his mother's favourite, fell and hit his head whilst ice skating. He died from the injury the day before his 14th birthday. JM Barrie tried to fill David's place in his mother's life - going to the extent of wearing his clothes and copying his mannerisms.

This is a direct link to Brenda as both of them have lost siblings they were close to and feel a certain need to obsess over their death, Barrie - with trying to fill the void left by him and Brenda - with the guilt from the part she played in her brother's death. 

Barrie's mother found comfort in the fact that her dead son would remain young forever - much like Barrie's well known and loved character Peter Pan. This idea is also explored in our piece as it's about how despite the death of her brother, his memories and his impact still follows her throughout her life and her development. Her brother remains young forever, like Barrie's brother and Peter. There is also theory in that JM Barrie was there the day his brother died and was incidentally the "friend" that caused the death of his brother. This links directly to the guilt Brenda feels over her brother's death and her part in her brothers death and how that lives with her for the rest of her life. Some may argue that Barrie wrote aspects in about his brother's death into Peter Pan - much like how Brenda writes a book on her experience.

Though we aren't necessarily using this as a stimulus, it is useful to help bring context and reality to our piece - situations like this really could happen. If we had more time for development, I feel it would've been interesting to have incorporated this further and have developed on the real life link between our story and JM Barrie's, perhaps incorporating aspects of his work into ours. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._M._Barrie

http://www.heraldscotland.com/tragedy-behind-neverland-did-jm-barrie-cause-brother-s-death-1.884307