posted on 16 Jun 2016

Alice through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll illustrated by Helen Oxenbury

As I am a huge Alice collector, I bought a copy of this companion volume to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland when it was first published several years ago. But how could I possibly resist a signed limited edition in a slipcase priced at £30  when I saw it in a Hay on Wye bookshop the other day?

Apart from anything else, Helen Oxenbury is one of my all time favourite author/ illustrators. Her charming interpretation of ' Going on a Bear Hunt' written by Michael Rosen is probably her most widely known book but there are many others like ' The Quangle Wangle 's Hat' by Edward Lear and 'Meal One' by Ivor Cutler that I love. And ' So Much' by Trish Cooke is for me the perfect picture book with its depiction of a loving, cosy family with a chubby baby at its heart ( see my review of Trish Cooke's book on this link).

Turning the first page of a beautiful book like this is an important moment for me and this one certainly doesn't disappoint. The strong deep blue of the left hand page is balanced by the delicately painted winter landscape with snow covered trees on the facing page. The theme of the countryside with its carefully drawn flowers and animals against a cloudy sky pervades and conveys a recognisable English background in tune with this classic story.

Oxenbury has a very distinctive uncluttered, loose style and often uses watercolours to convey a gentle ordinariness in her illustrations. In this way her interpretation of Alice's character is familiar , very like one of the playful children in ' Going on a Bear Hunt'. The iconic character of Alice has been and continues to be interpreted by thousands of different artists and some include very little reference to the Tenniel illustrations. However Oxenbury has paid homage to the original in several ways by giving her Alice recognisable long blonde hair, but in her version it is unkempt and she wears a plain blue dress, but pinafore style over a white jumper and of course no fussy apron to protect it. She wears black tights and white lace up trainers to complete her practical warm outfit. 

As we go through the story we meet all the well known characters but they are given a twist that makes them seem very familiar and not at all threatening. Perhaps part of this is achieved by all of the adults having disconcertingly baby like faces.

I hadn't realised before seeing a recent photograph of Oxenbury that the White Queen is probably based on the artist herself with her rather scatty traditional grandmotherly look complete with a large untidy bun.

In the real world, she is married to another great picture book illustrator, John Burningham, whose physical resemblance is also seen in several comfortable characters throughout the book, presumably this is deliberate?

The book is packed with pictures, some balanced against a page of text but others that bleed across two pages and so allow the reader to luxuriate in the atmosphere.

Somehow this modern little girl comes across as confident, curious and open rather than precocious and prissy as in the original Alice character, which makes her very likeable for me. This edition is undoubtedly special and I am glad that I succumbed to adding it to my collection because I was persuaded that, as this author rarely signs her books, it could be part of my grand children's inheritance. In the meantime I intend to enjoy it all for myself.

 

Karen Argent

14th June 2016