I’m not sure when I was first given a copy of “Alice in Wonderland” but I know it was my godmother, my mum’s best friend from being giggling schoolgirls together. They were both very keen readers, Daphne particularly so, and when she was working at the Low Temperature Research Station as a secretary with mum, at lunch times they would go into town. They would go to Boots which in those days had libraries, and there was one in Cambridge. I think Daphne and mum must have borrowed books, but they also spent their lunch hours standing by the shelves actually reading the books. The reason they didn’t borrow the books was that there was a charge, and small though it was, the two young women didn’t have any to spare.
Also working at the Low Temp, as it was called, was a young man named Donald Elsden… well you can guess the rest. Three years after mum and dad were married, I arrived, and Daphne and her husband became my godparents – just as mum and dad did when they in turn became parents. Daphne gave me a gift – either when I was born, or when I was Christened, and it was a beautiful illustrated copy of “Alice in Wonderland”. It was read to me countless times and when I first began to read I struggled my way through it, captivated by Alice’s adventures, accepting the weirdness of it. I remember asking Dad to read it to me on one occasion, and he must have been busy because he told me to read it myself. I said that some words were very long, and he said he knew I could work them out and manage by myself… which I probably did.
We didn’t have a lot of books as children, but those we had were read over and over again. We were lucky enough to have a marvellous library less than a mile from where we lived. I went there from being very small, my parents would borrow books too, and when I was old enough I’d go on my own to choose my books. Because i read so voraciously I got to a point when I’d read all the books in the children’s library and many of them more than once. I borrowed mum’s ticket and was able to borrow from the adult section – I guess Mr Horspool the librarian could see that I was a serious little reader. However, even though I borrowed library books, I still went back to my own books at home to read again, including Alice
I have Alice in Wonderland in my mind because I was in conversation with a friend about it, and was surprised that although they knew much about it, they’d never ever read it! I have urged them to attend to this as soon as possible and now await updates!
My featured image is of me when I was about fourteen – still a keen reader!
Lois Elsden 