Peter Pan, Christopher Robin and Alice became immortal children. The people behind them had to carry those fictional identities into adult life. A chain of literary coincidences links bookshops, publishers, illustrators, family tragedies and two men who might have understood one another but never met.

There has never been an easier time to enter publishing — or a harder time to be noticed. Micro-publishing, print-on-demand and digital tools have lowered the drawbridge, but they have not removed the moat. In an age of AI slop, the new independent publisher must become gatekeeper, editor, designer, curator and provenance-keeper.