The story of the composition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is well known. A youngish Oxford don took Alice Liddell and her sisters up the river “one golden afternoon”, and told them a story on the river-bank which was later written down. And what a story!Rereading it, in tandem with the current volume, one is surprised by how familiar the tale is, how deeply it has permeated our culture. I had not read Alice for at least 40 years, and yet it hardly needed reviving in my memory. Moreover, the book has given the English language numerous phrases. We all know “Curiouser and curiouser!” but who knew that the expression “All must have prizes” came from Alice too?The universal appeal of Alice and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, is the real