New book explores how Alice in Wonderland was inspired by Oxford

Alice’s Oxford: People and Places that Inspired Wonderland, by Peter Hunt, delves into the 19th-century roots of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.

The book, which will be published on April 24, serves as both a guide and a history, exploring the numerous connections between Oxford and Lewis Carroll’s celebrated works.

Oxford’s streets, colleges, and buildings, the River Thames, and the villages on its banks are filled with hundreds of connections to the books.

Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles Dodgson, spent much of his life as an academic at Christ Church.

His muse, Alice Liddell, the real-life inspiration for the books’ Alice, was the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church.

She grew up in the college, and the stories began as tales told to her and her sisters.

Carroll wove in local people, places, and events that the Liddell children would recognise.

As the books developed, they expanded to include a broader range of satire and caricature, with Oxford transforming into an eccentric Wonderland.

Mr Hunt is a Professor Emeritus in Children’s Literature at Cardiff University and an Adjunct Professor at Dublin City University.

His new book is being published by Bodleian Library Publishing.