150 years of Through the Looking-Glass – and what Alice found in Oxford and North Wales.
Tuesday 11th October
2pm-3pm talk, followed by a discussion circle at 3.30pm-4pm
Attend in person for £11.
View the talk online for £8. Please note, the discussion circle will be in-person only.
If you would like lunch before the talk, please call 01244 532 350 to book separately.
When thinking of the fantastic world of Alice in Wonderland you might not instantly picture WE Gladstone. What on earth can the Victorian Prime Minister have to do with Red Queens, White Rabbits, and Cheshire Cats? As far as we know, Gladstone wasn’t overly fond of his own Queen, had no recorded views on rabbits, and liked dogs.
But as Oxford local historian Mark Davies will explain, the spaces and places that so inspired Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) were also Gladstonian places: Christ Church, their shared Oxford college, and knotty maths problems and elegant classical wordplay (both Gladstone and Carroll specialised in Maths and Classics). They even shared the age itself, with both Carroll and Gladstone dying in 1898. Henry Liddell, father of the famous Alice, also died in 1898, and was near enough Gladstone’s exact contemporary as they were born in 1811 and 1809 respectively.
Join Mark for an hour that will surely inform even the most devoted Alice fan a thing or two about its origins, its real-life inspirations, and its enduring appeal.
Mark Davies is an Oxford local historian, writer (Alice in Waterland and Alice's Oxford on Foot) and guide. He is a founder-organiser of Oxford’s annual Alice’s Day, a committee member of the Lewis Carroll Society, and has lectured on Alice as far away as India. Since deciding to live on a canalboat in central Oxford in 1992, he has written and published water-related books: Our Canal in Oxford and A Towpath Walk in Oxford (both co-written with Catherine Robinson), The Abingdon Waterturnpike Murder, and Stories of Oxford Castle (all under the Oxford Towpath Press imprint).
Attend in person for £11.
View the talk online for £8. Please note, the discussion circle will be in-person only.
If you would like lunch before the talk, please call 01244 532 350 to book separately.
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