From Somewhere in Time

Lewis Carroll took a lease on a house in the Surrey town of Guildford, and his six unmarried sisters went to live there after their father died and they had to move out of Croft Rectory. Guildford is proud of its connection, and there are various Lewis Carroll events running there between now and 9 October.

Although it is now a big, sprawling town which has been rather over developed, the historic core of Guildford, which Carroll would have known, is very well preserved. Carroll's house was near the ancient ruined castle, and there are beautiful views over the surrounding countryside.

Surrey's countryside is exceptionally beautiful and Carrol loved having long walks there. We often go cycling and walking there too. You can see Carroll's grave in the churchyard of St. Mary's; I wasn't there for the group's visit but like this picture, showing it overgrown with wild forget-me-not flowers,



The conference was in the University of Surrey campus, high above the town. I had to miss some of it but there were some very interesting events. For me the highlights were a talk about Carroll and the afterlife, plus a variety of other talks on Carroll's relationships with people in Guildford, and our visit to the nearby unusual looking and quirky village of Albury notable for the

huge Pugin chimneys on many of the houses.

And there's an interesting mansion called Albury House. Some of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" was filmed there, and it used to be divided into apartments. I think it still is, and I have to say that it seemed absolutely beautiful to me - I got chatting to someone who owns an apartment there. In the past, the house has featured in Channel 4's Country House Rescue
I also enjoyed a visit to the Surrey History Centre in Woking. There's a very good collection of material about Carroll's family there, although it is probably mostly of interest to scholars.. We also had an insight into the work of conserving some of the huge quantities of documents and maps they deal with.

We also went to Guildford Museum, which is in a rambling old house very near where Carroll lived. I am sure he passed it often, and probably admired it. Would he have been surprised to know that one day it would contain some of his childhood playthings? I suppose so, and he surely would have been astonished and perhaps a little dismayed to know that the surplice he wore when helping at church services, would also be on display.

The surplice is part of the temporary exhibition. It is made of linen and has been hand made, probably by one of his sisters. It is very crumpled, but the lady at Guildford Museum explained that they didn't want to risk ironing it. Carroll seems to have been pretty neat and tidy so I expect he would have got it done by his laundress, Mrs. Gray.

Vanessa's storytelling gig (when she told Carroll's unpublished "Little Foxes" tale) was such a hit at Boutcher School that she did another one at Dulwich Library, Southeast London, for some other local schoolchildren.



Listening...



and listening....



dressing up and



pretending to be rabbits!

Oxford Storypods are running a fun contest for 200 word Carrollian stories. Click here for the details. I should think it's harder than it seems - it's only 200 words and it's quite a challenge to get a good story into that, AND be funny!

Storypods are also involved in a Mad Hatter's Lunch together with the Jam Factory. (nearly typed Ham Factory there. Ham or Jam?) This will take place on 10th July and it's described as "Fancy Dress With A Literary Twist" with jam tarts and Tweedle Dee Burgers.

And what about Pancake Smiles? Arthur thought that was a nice idea.

Sounds like fun. The festival Doune the Rabbit Hole takes place around Doune castle, Stirlingshire, on 30-31st July. It promises "poetry, dancing, philosophy, forests, stories, lights, trees, cows, theatre, comedy, dressing up boxes, whisky, games, face-painting, giant mushrooms, rainbows (but no rain), local ale and cider, and lovely organic food"

The bit about "no rain" shows a cheerful optimism. Hurrah!

If they make any profit it will go to the deaf charity, Dummy Jim, which is named after
profoundly deaf Scotsman James Duthie who cycled from Scotland to the Arctic Circle for just £12.

By the way if anyone's interested in doing the same, to raise funds, go here.. Oh, and look out for the film of Jim's story, which is on its way.

to get an invitation for the festival, BUY A BUTTON for £48 ... and the invitation comes free.

What could be more fun than a Mad Tea Party? Niko here couldn't resist the red and white curly England wig



...and in fact, he couldn't resist the brown wide-brim hat either... or the white furry one....


And the pink one was a big favourite...



Everyone had fun trying on the hats



They admired themselves very much....



There were plenty of teapots ...including some mad ones... here's one shaped like a cottage...



Vanessa told them Lewis Carroll's story of the Little Foxes, and they were all extremely glad when the Foxes go their tea ... and they had some chocolate cake themselves.



And did some games and dancing



And everyone had a great tea party...Niko found yet another hat to go on top of all the others




And thanks to Vanessa Valencia at A Fanciful Twist for having me as Guest of Honour at HER party!

We had loads of fun with a group of kids at Boutcher School in Southwark yesterday. I'll be writing all about it on 26 June. Meanwhile, here's Nigel of Bermondsey doing his Bob Dylan impression

One of the best things about writing the book about Carroll is that I've met so many interesting people who are also Carroll fans. One of them is Susan Sanford, whose work I've mentioned before in this blog. Susan lives in California but was over in Britain for a while, and we met up last week at the Victoria and Albert Museum in Kensington. We visited the Medieval Gallery and the Costume court, and the funny thing is that I thought I'd visited both of them recently, yet both were entirely different from how I'd remembered.

I was glad that Susan and I finally had a chance to chat in real life rather than via a keyboard. She has an interesting and individual outlook on life, as you'd expect from her site. And, I was so pleased when she gave me one of her artworks to go on my wall.



She had brought along some other originals of the pictures on her blog including a number of "doctored" Victorian cabinet photographs - beautiful objects in their own right. My favourite one of these was Deranged Domesticity. As a tangible (as opposed to a virtual object) he had a curiously compelling presence...

(I've just scrolled back through her site to find this, and am intrigued again by the consistently curious quality of her vision. )

Take a look at the Alice in Wonderland Inspired Photography Movies and Art Facebook Page.

It's a great panorama of work inspired by the Alice books - really astonishing to see the variety and quality.

I wonder where this one is - it's obviously painted on the wall of a derelict building.

Have had an offer from Jumava, a large publisher in Latvia, which wants to to publish the book there. I guess it would be translated into Latvian. Latvia is a place I'd like to visit - I'm told it has some amazing architecture (see below)

I had an Unbirthday on 14 May. My real birthday is 14 January, and unfortunately a relative had just died at that time (not to mention a whole lot of other horrible stuff) so I didn't feel like celebrating it.

I scheduled an Unbirthday 4 months later, and it was a lot of fun. One of my presents was this cool and unusual version of Alice, in a photo puppet theatre version. It is sold at Pollocks Toy Theatres one of the most fascinating museum shops in London, in Whitfield St, Fitzrovia. Dear Pollocks is in some ways almost unchanged since the Victorian era, and it's been a favourite of mine for many years - in fact, I'm hoping to do an event with them soon. I am certain that Lewis Carroll would have felt entirely at home there.