I Do Believe in Money! I Do! I Do!

With great fanfare, the name of the sharecropped official sequel to Peter and Wendy (itself probably the greatest tie-in novel of the 20th century) has been announced: Peter Pan in Scarlet.

Do I need to unpack that? Right. First, Peter Pan is the title of the play, and the play came first. Peter and Wendy is the title of the novel, though various low publishers and other miscreants have put out editions of it under the play's title over the years. Peter and Wendy is a novelization of a work from another medium, and thus a tie-in. Are we all clear on the backstory, now?

The new title is, quite frankly, a snooze. Yes, it did have to have the words "Peter Pan" in it, but it didn't have to be that boring.

I also note from the BBC article that the trustees of the Great Ormond Street Hospital (who own the copyright to Peter Pan) apparently have never read the book, since they think Captain Hook is still alive at the end of it and available for a sequel.

Yes, raising money for sick children is indisputably a good thing. But I tend to doubt any book written to raise cash, and designed to please the unnumbered trustees, will add anything worth clapping for to the world of the Lost Boys.

I do hope to be proven wrong, of course, but I very much doubt it will happen.