The children of Great Ormond Street Hospital are seeking a new literary benefactor after a large portion of Peter Pan’s legacy flies away for good on New Year’s Eve.

Since 1937, seriously ill children have benefited from J. M. Barrie’s generous decision to bequeath the copyright and other intellectual property rights of Peter Pan to the famous London hospital.

Income from the children’s classic, and its Disney spin-offs, has bought vital equipment, furnished wards and helped the hospital towards an annual £50 million fundraising target.

But under EU law, which restricts the rights of authors to 70 years after their death, European copyrights for Peter Pan will expire on December 31. However, thanks to special legislation drawn up in 1987, small sums from British royalties will continue to accrue.

The hospital hopes that a film of Peter Pan in Scarlet, an official sequel written by Geraldine McCaughrean, will provide one final royalties windfall. But several other income streams will dry up in 2008, leaving the hospital in need of another charitable soul.

Christine DePoortere, director of the Peter Pan project at the hospital, said: “We’ve had a tremendous run with Barrie, we really couldn’t have asked for any more.”

As for a new patron? “J. K. Rowling would be wonderful — we never turn down any money,” she said. We just hope someone suitable comes forward.” People who could be approached include Madonna, who is now a top-selling children’s author.

Ms DePoortere said that the hospital had great expectations for the £10 million film version of Peter Pan in Scarlet, produced by Headline Pictures, the UK Film Council and BBC Films. It is due out in 2009 and the hospital will benefit from the box-office takings and then DVD sales.

Barrie made his bequest in 1929, eight years before his death. He had been asked to give a series of fundraising lectures in support of the hospital, which was founded in 1852. But, being too shy to speak, he donated the royalties from Peter Pan instead.

As early as 1907, three years after the play’s premiere, the royalties stood at £500,000.

Great Ormond Street will be organising the first Peter Pan Week in March, which aims to “bring Neverland to life for young people nationwide”. It hopes to raise £300,000 for a new, state-of-the-art renal unit.

Everyone who participates will become part of the newly resurrected Peter Pan League, which was the first fundraising campaign after Barrie made his gift. It was supported by A. A. Milne, who wrote an appeal asking children all over the country to join the league and help seriously ill children to get better.

The trustees averted the last threat to the legacy 20 years ago, when the original copyright expired after 50 years. On that occasion Lord Callaghan introduced a special amendment to the Copyright Act allowing the hospital to receive British royalties from Peter Pan in perpetuity, and these will continue. However, copyright law was harmonised by the EU in 1995 and copyright now normally expires 70 years after an author’s death, meaning that there will be no future European royalties.

A spokeswoman for J. K. Rowling said that the author was a great admirer of Great Ormond Street Hospital but was already a supporter of several children’s charities.

In the US, the copyright to the Peter Pan novel has expired, although the play will continue to produce royalties for the hospital until 2023.

J. M. Barrie

— Born in 1860 to a family of Scottish weavers, Barrie embarked on a career in journalism, before becoming a novelist and playwright

— The inspiration for Peter Pan is thought to have come from a walk in Kensington Gardens, London, in 1897, when Barrie bumped into George Llewelyn-Davies, 5, and his brothers Jack, 4, and Peter, in a pram

— Arthur Conan Doyle, G. K. Chesterton and A. A. Milne all played with Barrie in his casual cricket team, the Allahakbarries

— Johnny Depp played Barrie in the 2004 film Finding Neverland

Source: Times database

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