Dr Franziska Kohlt on BBC Radio 4 “In Our Time - Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

Listen to Franziska Kohlt and others as they explore Alice’s origins in Victorian childhood culture, the author’s fascination with maths and science and the tale’s multifaceted afterlife.

Melvyn Bragg and guests (Franziska Kohlt, Kiera Vaclavik and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst) discuss Lewis Carroll's book which first appeared in print in 1865 with illustrations by John Tenniel.

It has since become one of the best known works in English, captivating readers who follow young Alice as she chases a white rabbit, pink eyed, in a waistcoat with pocket watch, down a rabbit hole that becomes a well and into wonderland.

There she meets the Cheshire Cat, the Hatter, the March Hare, the Mock Turtle and more, all the while growing smaller and larger, finally outgrowing everyone at the trial of Who Stole the Tarts from the Queen of Hearts and exclaiming “Who cares for you? You’re nothing but a pack of cards!"

Alice in Wonderland is one of the most popular children’s books ever written.

Why is it that a book, originally extemporised on a boat trip in nineteenth-century Oxford so uniquely stood the test of time?

Listen on BBC Radio 4 as these questions and more are discussed.