The Yellow Week at Stanway

Could this be Peter Pan's summer playground? Croquet, cricket and am-dram Shakespeare on the lawn are just some of the pastimes for guests in this quirky record of JM Barrie's Cotswold house party in summer 1923. Featuring Nicholas Llewellyn Davies - one of the models for Barrie's 'lost boys' - as well as Nico's Eton and Oxford friends, the film captures the madcap antics of a gilded and carefree youth.

JM Barrie first rented Stanway, the Cotswolds home of Lord and Lady Wemyss, in 1921, and held regular summer house-parties thereafter. From 25 July 1923 Barrie invited his secretary Cynthia Asquith (the eldest daughter of Lord Wemyss) and her family, Nicholas Llewellyn Davies and his Eton friends (who arrived in late August and left by 10 September) and a number of other guests. Cricket and croquet matches were a feature of the house parties, and there were 'entertainments' planned - on this occasion the project was to make a film, and a professional cameraman was hired. Barrie wrote the screenplay and most likely the titles, some of which are in verse.