Features
Come on a journey into the Victorian world, meet some inspired inventors, and look at the work of some of the illustrators who have followed in the footsteps of Sir John Tenniel. We talk to Marina Warner about fairy-stories, and Jonathan Miller about his own film adaptation of 'Alice'.
Jonathan Miller on Alice
Jonathan Miller is an acclaimed director, writer and performer – and numerous other things too. His haunting film, 'Alice In Wonderland' – with a cast that included Peter Sellers, Peter Cook, John Gielgud, Michael Redgrave and Alan Bennett, and music by Ravi Shankar – was released in 1966. He spoke to ICONS about his film and the book that inspired it.
The Victorian World
The world in which the real-life Alice – Alice Pleasance Liddell – grew up was one we would barely recognise today. It was a time of sharp social division, in which the status of children varied hugely depending on their background. In better-off families, they might be doted on, particularly in the case of little girls, while in poorer households they were treated as small adults and put to work both inside and outside the home.
Science And Technology In Wonderland
The Victorian age saw new machines and devices being invented to solve specific problems, or open new technological horizons, rather than simply being curiosities created for their own sake.
ICONS Meets Marina Warner
Marina Warner is a prize-winning writer of fiction, criticism and history. Among her influential works are novels, short stories and children’s books, as well as studies of female myths, symbols, folklore and fairytale. ICONS spoke to her about Lewis Carroll and the 'Alice' books.
Absolute Nonsense
'Alice' is full of poems – between the two books there are 22 of them – but they aren’t the respectable, heavy, classical poems that many of Lewis Carroll’s contemporaries were writing. No, the Alice poems are wild and funny and sometimes very odd indeed…
From Wonderland to Hogwarts
Children's books are big business these days. Books like the 'Harry Potter' series have taken over bestseller lists with sales that no adult book can hope to match. Jacqueline Wilson has built up a loyal fan base that has bought 25 million of her books, and made her the most borrowed author in our libraries. Children’s authors have found an excited readership among adults, and their books now frequently compete with adult novels for prestigious prizes.
Bad Alice
ICONS spoke to Jean Ure, an acclaimed writer of books for children and teenagers. In 2003 she published 'Bad Alice'. It’s the story of Duffy, a 13-year-old who is spending the summer at his grandmother’s house, and the girl he meets while he’s there: Alice. Alice is a troublemaker, the adults say, but Duffy soon learns that there’s more to it than that…
An Artist at Work
Meera Chauda is an artist whose work fuses images from 'Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland' with images of Hindu Gods. ICONS spoke to her.
Ten Things...
So you think you know Alice? Well, here are ten things that you might not have known about this famous work.
