Author picked for Peter Pan sequel

An award-winning author is to come to the aid of Great Ormond Street

The news will be a boost to the children's hospital, which had to close beds and cancel operations after running up £1.7million of debt. Barrie gave the copyright of Peter Pan to Great Ormond Street in 1929. The hospital hopes the new book, provisionally called Captain Pan, will add to the millions it has earned from the original.

The hospital's trustees organised a competition to find a writer for the sequel in an attempt to raise royalties outside Britain. Geraldine McCaughrean, 53, who recently won the Whitbread children's book award for the third time, was selected.

She said: "It is an astonishing, daunting privilege to be let loose in Neverland." Her sequel is set a generation later than the original but Peter Pan remains the same age.