A Friendship in Letters

Robert Louis Stevenson & J.M. Barrie

Michael Shaw author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Sandstone Press Ltd

Published:13th Nov '20

£11.99

Available to order, but very limited on stock - if we have issues obtaining a copy, we will let you know.

A Friendship in Letters cover

Full UK marketing campaign by the Sandstone Press in-house team.

Until a couple of years ago, J. M. Barrie's manuscript letters to Robert Louis Stevenson were presumed lost by Barrie's biographers.This fascinating and witty exchange shows why they developed such an intense bond (despite never meeting) and the deep impact their correspondence had on Barrie's life and work after Stevenson died.

In A Friendship in Letters, Dr. Michael Shaw brings together correspondence between two of Scotland’s most famous writers for the first time.

Though they never met, Robert Louis Stevenson and J. M. Barrie developed a warm friendship, revealed in these amusing and gossipy letters, with vivid commentary on each other’s literary work. Until recently, Barrie’s side of the correspondence was presumed lost by his biographers. This epistolary volume reunites Barrie’s letters with Stevenson’s and contextualises them through an engaging introduction and a series of appendices, including a delightful short story by Barrie.

This delightful book opens a fascinating window onto a brief but intense friendship.


Interesting and accessible.


Highly personal, completely revealing and, in parts, hilarious; this new collection of letters is both entertaining and illuminating.


This beautifully-produced volume sets out how a literary friendship can be formed in letters. By turns playful, analytic and poignant.


A sparkling epistolary relationship: a meeting of creative minds that is at once playful and serious, affectionate and daring.


A literary scoop.

* The Spectator *

The letters are delightful... with an excellent introduction by the editor Michael Shaw.

* The Scotsman *

The letters are presented faithfully... The friendship that emerges is open, honest and heart-warming.

* Scots Magazine *

A treasure trove of playful and poignant missives.

* The Press and Journal *

Stevenson’s widow, Fanny Van de Grift, said that his letters to Barrie were among the gayest he ever wrote. This slim volume bears out that vivacity.

* The Herald *

Barrie and Stevenson left behind them an immortal body of work and unforgettable works of literature. And it’s as if they have returned to life through the labours of Dr Shaw.

* The Press and Journal *

‘Stevenson fantasised about the ‘cracks’(that is, conversation) the two men might have had if Barrie had ever made the journey to Samoa. This sensitively edited work is a valuable record of the cracks they actually had.

* Literary Review *

A delightful book.

* Scottish Revi

ISBN: 9781913207021

Dimensions: 205mm x 138mm x 20mm

Weight: 328g

192 pages