Book review: The Story of Alice – Lewis Carroll and the Secret History of Wonderland by Robert Douglas-Fairhurst

  Like many of us, Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Johnson, was a rich study in contrasts. Born to a moderately well off middle class family in the isolated Cheshire parish of Daresbury, Carroll was to all appearances a shy, studious man, more given to the pursuit of religion, mathematics Continue Reading

Alice in Wonderland at 150: Why fantasy stories about girls transcend time (curated article)

  It’s 150 years since an Oxford mathematics don published the most important work of children’s literature and one of the most influential books of all time. The origins of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in a story that Charles Dodgson told 10-year-old Alice Liddell and her two sisters while rowing Continue Reading

Andrew turns the big Five-O: The 50 favourite movies of my life

  Ever since my mother took me to see Star Wars in a small wooden single-screen cinema in Ballina, N.S.W. in 1977, I have been enraptured by the power of movies to tell wholly-engrossing, utterly-immersive stories. It doesn’t matter if it’s fun lightweight blockbuster or a serious “issues” movie, cinema Continue Reading