Alice in Wonderland is 150 years old.

There are three books that are quoted more than any others and they are: the bible Shakespeare and Alice in Wonderland. She is 150 years old this year and is still growing strong. Published on 26 November 1865 its not been out of print ever since. The story is of course much enhanced by the delightful illustrations by the then Punch cartoonist John Tenniel. There are translations of her in just about every language. What is about this children's story that is so beguiling and enthralling? It to do with the mystery of the unconscious world of dreams. Alice falls asleep on the river bank of the Thames and as we know falls down a white rabbit-hole into the labyrinth of the underworld. One of the great delights is the Caucus race where the Dodo says 'everybody has won and all must have prizes'. That sense of the unreal and the world turned upside down. The author Lewis Carroll (Charles Dodgson 1862-1898) a don at Christ Church Oxford has of late been heavily criticised as a deeply repressed paedophile. Alice Liddell the middle child of three sisters was beautiful and often photographed by Dodgson. However one particular pose has caused must discussion and dismay of her in a dress that is slightly bedraggled. All the evidence both for an against was put before us in a brilliant not to be missed programme by Martha Kearney on Saturday night on BBC Two in The Secret World of Lewis Carroll.