All books have a sosy somewhere...

When children rule the world (...or an island)

Right: Naughty childhood tries hard to enjoy naughtiness without turning nasty. Finds security on an island, but in the process loses more and more its capacity for human feelings. The "real world" has been outed from the island.

Left: Children try to act sensibly and turn nasty. Locked on a maddening island from which they can't get out. The "real world" invades the island and turns it sour.

Pervasive threat rules these two. But, where Golding shows you scary, maddening, childhood “dreams”, Barrie easily indulges in them. You’re left with a sense that this threat felt in Peter Pan may not have been felt by its author, and that, above all, is the scariest aspect of the book.