First Night Design | Alice is At It Again! #Repost

FROM THE ARCHIVE 29th April 2015
This is the first of an occasional series highlighting Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland —  2015 marks 150 years since the book was…

Source: First Night Design | Alice is At It Again! #1 | First Night Design

Stunning literary find: new Lewis Carroll ‘Alice’ book

Stunning literary find: under the floorboards of a room at Christchurch College, Oxford, an electrician has found a manuscript thought to have been written by ‘Lewis Carroll’ (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson). Some of it is hard to decipher and it’s clearly incomplete. Here’s one passage:

“Come in,’ said a woman in a loud voice.
Alice walked in to a large room at the Compartment of Edification.
Sitting in front of her, staring into the middle distance was the Blue Queen.
‘How old are you?’ said the Blue Queen.
‘I’m seven years old,’ said Alice politely.
Sitting next to the Queen was the Gibblet.
‘Seven?’ said the Gibblet, ‘Seven? Test her.’
‘Test her,’ said…

Source: Michael Rosen

September 6, 1939: Fairy Tales Can Come True

Wretched Richard's Almanac

September 6, 1939

Widely regarded as one of the leading illustrators from the Golden Age of book illustration, from 1900 until the start of the First World War, Arthur Rackham died on September 6, 1939. He was born 71 years earlier in London as one of 12 children. In 1884, at the age of 17, he was sent on an ocean voyage to Australia to improve his fragile health, accompanied by two aunts, and upon his return began studying part-time at the Lambeth School of Art.

His first book illustrations were published in 1893. He has illustrated such diverse works as Grimm Fairy Tales and Shakespeare, Alice in Wonderland and Wagner’s ring cycle. Many of the works he illustrated are commonly referred to as the Arthur Rackham editions.

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First Night Art | ALICE IS AT IT AGAIN! #2

For my second post to commemorate the publication of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland 150 years ago, I give you ArtLark’s article on Carroll and his photography. See Alice is at it Again #1 here. The title of this post has no connection to Lewis Carroll and his enchanting character but to the song by Noël Coward, which was the first thing that sprang to mind when I wrote that first post!

Alice in Wonderland Greeting Card

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Originally posted on A R T L▼R K.

On the 4th of July 1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in London. Written by Victorian author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898) under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, author, mathematician and Oxford don, this fantasy novel has since made him famous all over the world. Less known is the fact that Dodgson was also an avid and early practitioner of photography. He took it up in 1856, first under the influence of his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge, and later, his Oxford friend Reginald Southey.

In that first year, he made about 2,700 photographs, the last of which he finished in 1880. Half of these are photographic portraits of children, predominantly girls, while 30 percent are of adults and families. Overall, Dodgson produced a selection of self-portraits, group photographs, still lifes, landscapes, pictures of works of art, as well as featuring literary narratives and skeletons (including that of an anteater) and other props for anatomical studies. He even made a portrait of the Dodgson family doll, Tim. The majority of his surviving photos are in American collections, and 407 of those are at the Princeton University Library, which published a comprehensive album of them in 2002.

The incipient stage of photographic tools and techniques in the late 19th century gave Dodgson the inspiration for the imaginative…

via Alice in Wonderland and Photography | A R T L▼R K.

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‘Well! I’ve often seen a cat without a grin,’ thought Alice; ‘but a grin without a cat! It’s the most curious thing I ever saw in my life!’

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The Alice Collection: The Cheshire Cat Letterhead

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (Bantam Classics)

Available at the following galleries:
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK

Take care and keep laughing!

First Night Design | Alice is At It Again! #1

This is the first of an occasional series highlighting Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland —  2015 marks 150 years since the book was first published.

Alice’s Adventures Gift Wrap Paper

Alice and The Duchess Smiling Mouse Pad

The White Rabbit Note Book

Interesting fact: You might not know it but although Mock Turtle soup sounds like an invention by Carroll, it was actually a popular Victorian dish, which was invented as a poor man’s version of green turtle soup. According to Oliver Lansley in The Guardian, it consisted of the brains, head and hoof of a calf. Mmm, not sure I like the sound of it but it’s probably delicious!

Alice: Twinkle, Twinkle, said the Hatter

The Alice Collection: The Cheshire Cat Jumbo Tote Bag

Alice in Wonderland Throw Pillows

Alice and The Knave of Hearts Binder

The Alice Collection: Alice Telescoping Pack Of Chubby Business Cards

The title of this post has no connection to Lewis Carroll and his enchanting character but the song by Noël Coward was the first thing that sprang to mind!

Alice is At It Again! music & lyrics by Noël Coward

In a dear little village,
Remote and obscure
A beautiful maiden resided.
As to whether or not
Her intentions were pure,
Opinions were sharply divided.
She loved to lie
Out ‘neath the darkening sky,
And allow the night breeze
To entrance her,
She whispered her dreams
To the birds flying by
But seldom received any answer.

Over the field and along the lane
Gentle Alice would love to stray.
When it came to the end of the day,
She would wander away,
Unheeding.
Dreaming her innocent dreams she strode,
Quite unaffected by heat or cold,
Frequently freckled or soaked with rain,
Alice was out in the lane.

Who she met there
Every day
Was a question
Answered by none,
But she’d get there,
And she’d stay there,
‘Til whatever she did
Was undoubtedly done.

Over the field and along the lane
Both her parents would call in vain,
Sadly, sorrowfully, they’d complain,
‘Alice is at it again.’

Although that dear little village,
Surrounded by trees,
Had neither a school, nor a college,
Gentle Alice acquired
From the birds and the bees,
Some exceedingly practical knowledge.
The curious secrets that nature revealed,
She refused to allow to upset her,
But she thought,
When observing the beasts of the field,
That things might have been organised better.

Over the field and along the lane,
Gentle Alice would make up
And take up
Her stand.
The road was not exactly arterial,
But it led to a town nearby,
Where quite a lot of masculine material
Caught her rolling eye.

She was ready to hitchhike,
Cadillac or motorbike,
She wasn’t proud or choosy.
All she
Was aiming to be
Was a pinked-up,
Minked-up,
Fly-by-night floozy.

When old Rogers
Gave her pearls as large as
Nuts on a chestnut tree,
All she’d say was
‘Fiddle-di-dee!
The wages of sin will be the death of me!’

Over the field and along the lane,
Gentle Alice’s parents
Would wait,
Hand in hand.
Her dear old white-headed mother,
Wistfully sipping champagne,
Said ‘We’ve spoiled our child,
Spared the rod.
Open up the caviar and say “Thank God!”
We’ve got no cause to complain!
Alice is at it again!’

Available at the following galleries:
Zazzle US
Zazzle UK

Take care and keep laughing!

World Book Day: Our Favourite Books

Battersea Arts Centre is a marvellous space and was one of our local theatres before we moved to Crete. As it’s World Book Day today, here are their favourite books, their ‘reading list’. In other news, next month’s bandwidth will begin on Sunday (8th March). Roll on Sunday!

Battersea Arts Centre: Blog

As it’s World Book Day we took a quick tour of the office to find out our favourite books. Think of it as a Battersea Arts Centre reading list:

Natalie, Producing Placement: Oryx And Crake
Tref, Capital Administrator: Alice in Wonderland
Maddie, Assistant to the Artistic Director’s Office: The Regeneration Trilogy
Scott, Capital Project Manager: River God
Rosie, Executive Assistant: Buddha of Suburbia
Kane, Senior Development Manager: Infinite Jest
Natalie, Administration & HR Officer: Wuthering Heights
Jo, Admin Placement: The Secret Garden
Joanne, Tech Team: The Secret History
Dan, Tech Team: Short Guide To Nearly Everything
Frances, Deputy Production Manager: Les Mis
Katie, Take Out Assistant: The Remains Of The Day
Bethany, Producer: The Book Thief
Tanith, Catering Manger: East of Eden
Roisin, Agency Project Manager: The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Alex, Marketing Assistant: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
Evan, Comms Placement: This Is How You Lose Her
Russell, Commercial Operations Officer: Purity and Danger
Phillip, Box…

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