Description

Book Synopsis

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD

This is the secret history of Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland.

Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. Charles Dodgson was a quiet academic but his second self, Lewis Carroll, was a storyteller, innovator and avid collector of child-friends'. Carroll's imagination was to give Alice Liddell, his ''dream-child'', a fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.

This is a biography that beautifully unravels the magic of Alice. It is a history of love and loss, innocence and ambiguity. It is the story of one man's need to make a Wonderland in a changing world.



Trade Review
It is the ultimate book about Alice - comprehensive and scholarly, but so delightfully and elegantly written that it's a true work of literature -- Jacqueline Wilson
The Story of Alice is the best book on the myriad enigmas of Carroll’s heart-breaking wonderland I have ever read -- Robert McCrum * Observer *
Superb…toweringly the best of the dozens of books on Carroll which I have read -- AN Wilson * Financial Times *
Douglas-Fairhurst is a startling and exciting writer -- A.S. Byatt * Spectator *
This is biography at its best -- Lyndall Gordon * New Statesman *

The Story of Alice Lewis Carroll and The Secret

    Product form

    A Paperback / softback by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

    £11.69

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    RRP £12.99 – you save £1.30 (10%)

    Order before 4pm today for delivery by Wed 2 Sep 2026.

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      Book details

      Publisher Penguin Random House Group
      Imprint Vintage
      Published 4 February 2016
      ISBN-13 9780099594031
      978-0099594031
      ISBN-10 009959403X
      Also in:
      Biography Biography: writers ELT & Literary Studies Literary studies: c 1800 to c 1900 Literary studies: fiction

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD

      This is the secret history of Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland.

      Wonderland is part of our cultural heritage. But beneath the fairy tale lies the complex history of the author and his subject. Charles Dodgson was a quiet academic but his second self, Lewis Carroll, was a storyteller, innovator and avid collector of child-friends'. Carroll's imagination was to give Alice Liddell, his ''dream-child'', a fictional alter ego that would never let her grow up.

      This is a biography that beautifully unravels the magic of Alice. It is a history of love and loss, innocence and ambiguity. It is the story of one man's need to make a Wonderland in a changing world.



      Trade Review
      It is the ultimate book about Alice - comprehensive and scholarly, but so delightfully and elegantly written that it's a true work of literature -- Jacqueline Wilson
      The Story of Alice is the best book on the myriad enigmas of Carroll’s heart-breaking wonderland I have ever read -- Robert McCrum * Observer *
      Superb…toweringly the best of the dozens of books on Carroll which I have read -- AN Wilson * Financial Times *
      Douglas-Fairhurst is a startling and exciting writer -- A.S. Byatt * Spectator *
      This is biography at its best -- Lyndall Gordon * New Statesman *

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