'I wish I could get through into looking-glass house,' Alice said. 'Let's pretend that the glass has gone soft and . . . Why, I do believe it has! It's turning into a kind of cloud!'

A moment later Alice is inside the looking-glass world. There she finds herself part of a great game of chess, travelling through forests and jumping across brooks. The chess pieces talk and argue with her, give orders and repeat poems . . .

It is the strangest dream that anyone ever had . . .

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'I had sent my heroine straight down a rabbit-hole without the least idea what was to happen afterwards', wrote Dodgson, describing how Alice was conjured up one 'golden afternoon' in 1862 to entertain his child-friend Alice Liddell. In the magical world of Wonderland and the back-to-front Looking-Glass kingdom, order is turned upside-down: a baby turns into a pig; time is abandoned at a tea-party; and, a chaotic game of chess makes a 7-year-old a Queen.

One hot summer day, Alice sees a white rabbit and runs after it. She follows it down a rabbit-hole – and arrives in ‘Wonderland’. Here, caterpillars can talk and rabbits have watches. And the Queen wants to cut off everybody’s head!

Classic / British English