Barrie Society birthday bash will be a day of celebration in town

The life and works of J M Barrie will be celebrated in his home town of Kirriemuir tomorrow in a first birthday bash organised by a group set up to expand interest in the burgh’s famous son.

A year to the day since its inception, JM Barrie Literary Society members will toast the playwright with a number of events.

While Barrie is still held in great esteem here and abroad some 80 years after his death, he is still mainly remembered for Peter Pan.

Society founder Cally Phillips said there was much more to him than that, adding: “Without wishing to take anything away from Peter Pan, the aim of the society was to bring Barrie out of the shadow of that work, encouraging people of all ages to engage with his other works.”

Over the last year the society has brought out four volumes of Barrie’s work and the Kirrie events will include the publication of two more society editions.

Since 2018 brings the centenary of Barrie’s Echoes of the War plays, the society has compiled a resource pack to support community groups who are reading and/or putting on performances of the four short works to help commemorate the end of the Great War 100 years ago.

The theme for the first annual society journal is Perspectives on Barrie.

The Barrie pavilion on Kirrie Hill, which the author gifted to the town in 1930, will be the setting for the launch of the new publications and a picnic event to celebrate the society’s first birthday and Barrie’s 158th.

Kirriemuir’s Gateway to the Glens Museum will also be open with a Barrie exhibition for visitors to enjoy.