Wondering about Wonderland

Am I alone in noting an alarming abundance of Alices? Top left as interpreted by Mattel starring Barbie, top right by the brilliant Miss Aniela starring herself. Then, seemingly, I am also in the thrall having named the heroine of my own (short-lived) web based storytelling project Alice.

I did read the book, of course, as a youngster? Was I affected by it? Maybe.

Thinking about this I asked myself what books read as a child most influenced me in later life. Many were bought for me as presents by my father, a clergyman of the enlightened variety. I'm sure I had him to than for The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S.Lewis. (And, no, he wasn't trying to sell the Christian faith to me with subtlety; he insisted I make my own choice in that area which is whyy I am both agnostic and fascinated by theology, but that's another story.) I remember Swallows and Amazons being a birthday gift, but my takeaway was not a sudden desire to mess around in boats and indulge in all sorts of outdoorsy stuff. I reckoned Nancy and Peggy (the Amazons) were my kind of people (and Titty, too, at a pinch!). An early pre-puberty imprinting of my view of the fairer sex? Perhaps.

Looking back it was at about the same time that seeds were sown for my involvement in the entertainment industry. Pamela Brown wrote The Swish of the Curtain when she was fourteen, and I was about that age when I read it and her Television Twins and loved the world both books portrayed. Television? In 1954? Noel Streatfield's Ballet Shoes and The Painted Garden were more of the same. Was my future really predetermined when I was still wearing short trousers to school in Edinburgh?

I think the first 'grown up' book I read was No Highway by Nevil Shute. Oh yes, Biggles and The Thirty-nine Steps were on my shelf, too.

But I think I had already been recruited my the media. Back in the day the BBC had an occasional program titled We Want To Broadcast as a feature of Childrens' Hour. In my short school uniform pants and proper school blazer I stood in front of one of those huge BBC microphones and recited, yes, a passage from Alice in Wonderland.

Nota bene: My monthly rant against the blocking in the Sandlands of the Flickr site is overdue. But, as we say in German, aufgeschoben ist nicht aufgehoben!