Lewis Carroll biographer and renowned expert Edward Wakeling is joined by debut novelist Vanessa Tait – the great-granddaughter of Alice Liddell, Carroll’s inspiration for Alice – for a discussion on Carroll’s enduring influence today.

Wakeling is an internationally renowned expert on Carroll who has one of the finest private collections of Carroll material. He has just published a new biography of the writer, Lewis Carroll: The Man and his Circle. It offers a new appraisal of Carroll based on his enormous social circle and tackles some of the key myths surrounding his friendships with children and drug-taking. Tait’s The Looking Glass House is the story of governess Mary Pickett who takes a job looking after the children of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, including Alice Liddell. She meets Carroll and is determined to become his muse.

Wakeling and Tait will discuss some of the family stories that inspired Tait’s novel and talk more widely about Carroll’s life and why he still inspires readers and writers today.