10 Illustrators of Alice

1. John Tenniel, first editions published by Macmillan, London: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 1865, Through the Looking Glass 1871.
2. Arthur Rackham, published by Heinemann in 1907 in a limited edition of 1,130 copies; also a trade edition in a smaller format.
3. Mabel Lucie Attwell, published by Raphael Tuck in 1910
4. Mervyn Peake, first published by Zephyr, Sweden in 1946 and then by Wingate, London in 1954
5. Salvador Dalí, published by Maecenas Press, New York in 1969
6. Anthony Browne, published by MacRae in 1985. Winner of the Kurt Maschler Award.
7. Helen Oxenbury, Alice published by Walker in a signed limited edition in 1999 & Looking-Glass in 2005 Oxenbury won the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Kurt Maschler Award for Alice
8. Peter Blake, Looking-Glass only; published in a signed limited edition by D3 Editions in 2004.
9. Ralph Steadman, Alice published by Dobson in 1967 & Looking-Glass published by MacGibbon & Kee in 1972
10. Tove Jansson, Swedish edition, 1966; first English-language edition published in 1977 by Delacorte Press, New York; first UK edition by Tate Publishing in 2011

(This is just a selection there loads and loads more, See list in wikipedia,)

10 Successful writers whose fathers were ministers

Sayers, Austen, Buchan, Crane

1. Charlotte Bronte (And Anne and Emily)
2. John Buchan
3. Pearl Buck
4. Jane Austen
5. Lewis Carroll
6. Stephen Crane
7. Elizabeth Gaskell
8. Ronald Knox
9. Harriet Beecher Stowe
10. Dorothy Sayers

10 writers with appropriate adjectives

1. Aesop - fabulous
2. Homer - epic
3. Thomas Malory - legendary
4. J R R Tolkien - fantastic
5. Edgar Allan Poe - terrific
6. Lewis Carroll - wonderful
7. John Grisham - definitive
8. Khaled Hosseini - splendid
9. F X Toole - knock out
10. Ralph Ellison and H G Wells - both out of sight

10 Literary Greats whose fathers were ministers

1. Jane Austen (Anglican Rector)

2. Pearl S Buck (Presbyterian missionary to China)

3. John Buchan (FC of S minister)

4. Lewis Carroll [Samuel Lutwidge Dodgson] (Anglican cleric)

5. Stephen Crane (Methodist Episcopal minister)

6. Elizabeth Gaskell (Unitarian minister)

7. Dorothy L Sayers (Anglican cleric)

8. Harriet Beecher Stowe (Presbyterian minister)

9. Charlotte Bronte (Anglican Rector)

10. Alfred, Lord Tennyson (Anglican Rector)

Meetings, TV Shows, etc

I've been meaning to a sort of general update for a while now. Various things have been taking up my time as well as the regular Sunday and midweek meetings and reading, etc. About 12 days ago I had an ultra-sound scan. I'm still waiting for the results from that.

The day after that I had an officers meeting (which went on a little long) followed a week later by a church members meeting where people were reporting back on no less than four potential new members - two by profession and two coming from other churches. I welcomed in the latter two the following Sunday but the other two will need to be baptised first so we will be arranging that soon.

Then there was a Grace Magazine Trustees meeting at the chapel as we discuss whether and online attempt is feasible. I also have an LTS Board meeting tomorrow.

On Saturday we were giving out tracts in Golders Green. It was rather wet for that sort of activity. I met an old man who claimed to be an atheist. He was quite convinced this was because he knew so much but when I told him he was sadly deluded and asked him if he knew everything he got quite irate. Atheism seems quite fashionable at present. it is difficult for an atheist to show humility, which makes them immediately suspect to anyone who has thought much about these things.

As for TV shows, we have been watching Wolf Hall, of course. I thought the first one was stunning, the second less so but the series looks set to be a classic. I have also been enjoying some BBC4 documentaries - the one on Mike Oldfield and Tubular Bells, the three on recording popular music by Neil Brand (Sound of Song), one on early rock 'n' roll, and the anniversary re-recording of Please Please Me. We also enjoyed the documentary on The secret world of Lewis Carroll fronted by Martha Kearney on BBC 2.
In the midst of all this it was nice to have Dylan around for his birthday. He was in town for an interview.

10 popular children's writers & their illustrators

1. A.A. Milne & Ernest Shepherd
2. Lewis Carroll & John Tenniel
3. Roald Dahl & Quentin Blake
4. Kay Thompson & Hilary Knight (Eloise)
5. E B White & Garth Williams
6. C S Lewis & Pauline Baynes
7. Washington Irving & Arthur Rackham
8. Christian Brand & Edward Ardizzone (Nurse Matilda)
9. Julia Donaldson & Axel Scheffler
10. Allan and Janet Ahlberg

30 Great poems

Today's Times features a pull out with thirty poems everyone should know. Good choices on the whole.

1. We’ll Go No More A-Roving by Lord Byron So, we’ll go no more a-roving
2. I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman I hear America singing, the varied carols
3. Poor Old Lady by Anon Poor old lady, she swallowed a fly...
4. Funeral Blues by W.H. Auden Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone...
5. Crossing The Bar by Alfred, Lord Tennyson Sunset and evening star...
6. The Song of Mr Toad by Kenneth Grahame The world has held great Heroes...
7. If by Rudyard Kipling If you can keep your head when all about you...
8. Remember by Christina Rossetti Remember me when I am gone away...
9. Daffodils by William Wordsworth I wandered lonely as a cloud...
10. The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear The Owl and the Pussy-cat went to...
11. Kubla Khan by Samuel Taylor Coleridge In Xanadu did Kubla Khan...
12. Invictus by W.E. Henley Out of the night that covers me...
13. How Soon Hath Time by John Milton How soon hath Time, the subtle thief...
14. The Arrow and the Song by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I shot an arrow into...
15. Answer to a Child’s Question by Samuel Taylor Coleridge Do you ask what...
16. Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare Shall I compare thee to a Summer’s day...
17. The Soldier by Rupert Brooke If I should die, think only this of me...
18. To Autumn by John Keats Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness
19. Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen Bent double, like old beggars...
20. A Red, Red Rose by Robert Burns O my Luve’s like a red, red rose
21. Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley I met a traveller from an antique land...
22. He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven by W B Yeats Had I the heavens’...
23. The Tyger by William Blake Tyger! Tyger! burning bright, In the forest of the night
24. Death Be Not Proud by John Donne Death be not proud, though some have...
25. Hope is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson Hope is the thing with...
26. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll ’Twas brillig, and the slithy toves...
27. How Do I Love Thee? by Elizabeth Barrett Browning How do I love thee? Let me...
28. Love and Friendship by Emily Brontë Love is like the wild rose-briar...
29. Jerusalem by William Blake And did those feet in ancient time...
30. The Elephant by Hilaire Belloc When people call this beast to mind

VSP5 A sum

Lewis Carroll 1863 by Oscar G Rejlander (d 1875)
Publidc Domain via Wikimedia

I give thee all, I can no more,

Though small thy share may be:
Two halves, three thirds, and quarters four,
Is all I bring to thee!
Lewis Carroll

Short Poem 05

Charles Dodgson or Lewis Carroll's Jabberwocky is undoubtedly the greatest nonsense poem of all time. Deservedly it has a wikipedia entry here. What Carroll has done seems simple but you try it and see how very difficult it is in fact. It features in his Alice book Through the looking glass of 1871. the first verse appeared in a magazine where it was claimed to be in Anglo-Saxon. Chorltled, galumphing and frabjous have since been accepted as real words. I think brillig should be too.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.