We've waited a hundred years for this. On 5 October 2006 the biggest children's book publishing event of the century took place when Peter Pan in Scarlet by Geraldine McCaughrean - the official sequel to JM Barrie's much loved Peter Pan - hit bookshelves across the globe.

In August 2004, the Special Trustees of Great Ormond Street Hospital launched the search for a sequel to JM Barrie's timeless classic, Peter Pan. To mark the work's centenary publishers and literary agents worldwide were invited to put forward the names of up to two authors to be considered for the project. The author could be a children's or an adult writer and of any nationality. Entrants were asked to submit a sample chapter and synopsis. Geraldine McCaughrean was the author chosen from a field of nearly 200 entries from around the world.

Published in the UK by Oxford University Press (www.oup.com) in support of Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), Peter Pan in Scarlet shares most of the same enchanting characters as Peter Pan, capturing the spirit of the original perfectly, whilst offering a magical new slant which, just like J M Barrie's masterpiece, will appeal to both adults and children alike. The book was launched in fairytale style at Kensington Palace on 5 October.

Geraldine McCaughrean's sparkling prose captivated the judges who praised her synopsis and first chapter as being "most incredibly imaginative and quirky and charmingly skewed". JM Barrie's great-great-nephew, David Barrie, also one of the judges of the competition, thought his uncle would have "liked her style very much."