I will be taking part in a panel discussion on Alice in Wonderland at Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford, today at 7pm today (GMT). This should be a fun and interesting event with many Alice-experts.

Alice in Wonderland Panel Discussion

Tuesday 6th July at 7pm
Blackwell Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford

A variety of speakers, each with a different perspective on Alice and her Wonderland, will offer their views and interpretations on the world and characters depicted in Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece.

(Click on the book for a link to the event details!).

Alice in Wonderland at Blackwell's

The event is being done in conjunction with the Oxford Story Museum. Click on the image below for more information about the museum and the Alice Day events.

Oxford Story Museum website

Here’s my interview with BBC Oxford  from July 6th, 1pm GMT.

BBC – Part One

Last Year's Bookfest Logo (but you get the idea)

I will be reading Alice in Wonderland at the Oxfam Bookfest Readathon. The Readathon is intended to illustrate the central role that books play in people’s lives and the impact that buying a book from Oxfam can have on the lives of poor people around the world. It will be twenty four hours (9am Monday July 5^th to 9am Tuesday July 6^th) of continuous readings to support the great good work that Oxfam’s bookshops do.

Oxfam’s mission of helping those in need as a result of poverty from climate change, natural disasters, economic pressures and conflicts which affect so many millions and hitting the poor first and worst is a wonderful cause to be supporting.

Last year’s Bookfest resulted in a 40% increase in book donations to Oxfam, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of additional book sales in the months following Bookfest. According to Oxfam, sales of even two dozen books are enough to equip a whole classrooms, and a normal month’s book sales buys safe water for 2.1 million people, which says a lot about the importance of supporting Oxfam’s Bookfest events.

If you are in London, I hope you can attend!

When: Monday 5^th JULY 2010 (I’ll be there early this evening)

Where: Oxfam Bookshop, 91 Marylebone High Street, London W1U 4RB

More About Oxfam Bookfest 2010 readathon

An ambitious day-long readathon will launch Oxfam’s Bookfest 2010. Top writers, poets authors and celebrities along with Oxfam volunteers and customers will take part in a continuous reading aloud session at Oxfam’s flagship Bookshop in Marylebone. The readathon will begin at 8am on Monday 05 July and continue long into the night, and is the launch event for Oxfam’s second annual book festival Bookfest which runs from 3-17 July.

Last year’s Bookfest resulted in a 40% increase in book donations to Oxfam, and in the months following Bookfest the charity made £400,000 through the sale of books. Oxfam is hoping that this year’s Bookfest will be just as successful. Over the course of a fortnight more than 500 Bookfest events will take place in Oxfam Bookshps and regular Oxfam shops, and in libraries, community centres and other venues around the UK, featuring well-known authors and a host of activities for the whole family.

Here is a link to the Oxfam Bookfest Readathon page.

And, some interesting insights from Oxfam’s blog of last year’s events.

Learn more about Oxfam and its mission here.

Readers of the second Alice story, Through The Looking Glass, might remember the Old Sheep Shop.

As inspiration for the story (and rendered famously in John Tenniel’s illustration above), this shop was where the real life Alice would buy sweets and other treats. Today this is a popular visitor’s spot, The Alice Shop in Oxford, located just outside of Christ Church College on St. Aldate’s. You can find a nice description of the shop’s history here. Just as the story goes, the shop is “full of all manner of curious things” — including clever little items such as Mad Hatter Tea, White Rabbit pocket watches, and bottles that say “Drink Me.” And yes, I bought some of the tea.

Here are a few very special photos. Below is the original, handwritten and illustrated version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland from Lewis Carroll, given to Alice Liddell, as well as the original woodcuts that illustraot John Tenniel used to create his iconic Alice images. Simply amazing.

Next, some pictures of the famed “rabbit hole staircase” at the rear of the dining hall in Christ Church. As legend has it, this  narrow, winding staircase was the imaginative inspiration for what Lewis Carroll would later transform into Alice’s floating fall through to Wonderland. Not something you can see on the tour.

(Thanks Ilmo and Hayzell for the use of these fantastic photos!)

In anticipation of Alice Day in Oxford next month, I’ll be sharing some special Alice in Wonderland pictures from around Oxford.

Christ Church College might properly be thought of as the birthplace of Alice in Wonderland, where mathematician Charles Dodgson (pen name: Lewis Carroll) first met the real life Alice, Alice Liddell. Various locations around the college were inspiration for Carroll’s ideas in the Alice stories. The Alice Tree can be found in the garden of Christ Church. Legend has it, the tree’s mysterious shadows helped Carroll dream up the idea of a grinning Chesire Cat. Other versions of Alice folklore also suggest that this ancient tree with its sprawling branches was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsense poem,  ”Jabberwocky” (the tree is also sometimes known as the Jabberwocky Tree). Fact or fiction? Have a look at the pictures for yourself.

The Alice Tree in Christ Church's garden.

Its shadows and branches inspired --

Chesire cats ...

and Jabberwockies.

Prince Charles at Oxford

A huge crowd of people around Oxford today, so I decide to ask one of the security guards what’s the big deal.

Me: Why are there so many people here?
Guard: Prince Charles is visiting.
Me: Oh. Prince Charles? Who’s that?
Guard: [Blank look]. Are you a student here, Sir? Otherwise I’m going to have to ask you to move along.

I will be giving a talk this Friday, June 4 on digital books and issues of copyright at the Oxford English Postgraduate Conference. (Click on the image below to go to the Oxford English Department’s website announcement).

[Update: the full conference schedule and program is available. Click here to check it out].

Oxford English Postgraduate Conference

Phillip Pullman will also be taking part in a discussion during the latter part of the conference, which promises to be a very interesting event. You can click on the image below to visit the conference website with a bit more information:

Mis/Appropriation Conference

My talk will be at 2:10pm and at 3:10pm I will be chairing a panel of speakers, on the interesting topics of the ethics and experience of time and space in reading (link goes to the full schedule online):

Conference Schedule

Will post some excerpts from the conference later!

Someone had some brief but nice thoughts about my chapter in this review of Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy. Thanks!

Review: Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy