Alice's Oxford

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are two of the most famous fantasies in world literature, yet their roots are firmly in nineteenth-century Oxford, England.

The streets, colleges, buildings, the River Thames, and the villages on its banks in Oxford are imbued with literally hundreds of intricate connections to these books. Their author, Charles Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll, spent most of his life as an academic at Christ Church, one of the largest and oldest Oxford colleges. His muse, Alice Liddell—who is the thinly disguised Alice of the books—was the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church and lived there as she was growing up.

The 'Alice' books began as stories told to Alice and her sisters, with Dodgson incorporating local people, places, and events they would recognise. As the books grew, he included a much wider range of satire and caricature, until Oxford itself became an eccentric Wonderland.

This book serves as a guide and a history, exploring the city, the colleges, and the river that Alice and Lewis Carroll knew and shared, capturing all their eccentric and entertaining glory.