Happy Birthday Liddell Alice
Today is the birthday of Alice Liddell, the girl for and about whom Lewis Carroll wrote “Alice in Wonderland”. It’s also the date on which Alice’s adventures occur in the book … he must’ve really liked her ;) It’s the first year I’ve really been aware of this so I’ve gone rather overboard this week in reading the first book in “The Annotated Alice”, with all the notes (illuminating to say the least - now I have tons of other things mentioned in the margins that I want to read though lol) alongside Alice-like movies such as Labyrinth, Tideland and MirrorMask.
This afternoon, the book fresh in my mind, I’m watching various movie and TV versions of the story, from the Disney one I’ve seen many times before, my favourite (so far) Fiona Fullerton version, two that I’ve not seen yet - a black and white BBC version that sounds fascinating and the 1999 Tina Majorino TV movie - and also Dreamchild that I’ve always had a vague memory of seeing when I was probably far too young to understand it, so I’m looking forward to that too. Even iTunes has played a part - I listened to Tom Waits’ “Alice” (which I never knew was actually songs for an adaptation - I’d’ve listened to it much sooner if I had), Donovan’s “HMS Donovan”, and of course John Barry’s score to the Fullerton movie yesterday :) I have the Kate Beckinsale “Through the Looking Glass” too but I think I’ll save that till I’ve read the second book.
