J. M. Barrie: The Admirable Crichton

J.M. Barrie's The Admirable Crichton is the work of a son of a Scottish weaver, born in a tiny low-built house a few miles from Glamis Castle, where the writer would later come to entertain members of the Royal family at Princess Margaret's fourth birthday party. For Barrie the English upper classes were an endless source of fascination and humour – the ideal target for his social satire, beneath the veneer of which lies a greater, philosophical exploration of the nature of society, civilisation and the will-to-power.

The idea for the play may have been prompted by Arthur Conan Doyle, who suggested to Barrie that if a king and an able seaman were wrecked together on a desert island for the rest of their lives, the s