Following the White Rabbit in Llandudno
I`m happy to share a story about Lewis Carroll in Perfectenglishblog. A couple of months ago my wife and I visited a curious place called Llandudno.
Llandudno is a Victorian resort in North Wales and which claims to be the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland. It’s well-known that the family of Alice Liddell - who inspired the classic stories - had a holiday home in Llandudno but for decades debate raged over whether the author visited Llandudno too. Lewis Carroll did come to Llandudno after all - and a professional photographer claimed he had proof.
Few people remember that Lewis Carroll is the actually the pen name for mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, which he adopted when publishing his famous novels and nonsense verse. His love of paradox and his fondness for children led to the writing of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). A sequel, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, appeared in 1871. Interviewed when she was old, Alice remembered him as tall and slender, with blue/grey eyes, longish hair, and ‘carrying himself upright, almost more than upright, as if he had swallowed a poker’.
Llandudno is proud of its links with Alice Liddell.
To celebrate this links, the Town Council organises an annual Miss Alice Llandudno competition for local girls aged between 8 and 10. Miss Alice accompanies the town’s Mayor on all his public duties over the year.
Follow the White Rabbit trail in Llandudno was created in 2015 to commemorate 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland.
Used as waymarkers for the trail were 19 statues, each 1.2m in height and made from resin with a bronze effect finish.
My wife and I had great fun following the trail on a rainy weekend in Llandudno.
“Curiouser and curiouser!” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
“Mad Hatter: Would you like a little more tea?
Alice: Well, I haven't had any yet, so I can't very well take more.
March Hare: Ah, you mean you can't very well take less.
Mad Hatter: Yes. You can always take more than nothing.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
“What a strange world we live in...Said Alice to the Queen of hearts” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Tweedledum and Tweedledee
Agreed to have a battle;
For Tweedledum said Tweedledee
Had spoiled his nice new rattle.
Just then flew down a monstrous crow,
As black as a tar-barrel;
Which frightened both the heroes so,
They quite forgot their quarrel.
― Lewis Carroll,Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There
“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked. “Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.” “How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice. “You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
