'A work of glorious intelligence and literary devices . . . Nonsense becomes a form of higher sense' Malcolm Bradbury 'I had sent my heroine straight down a rabbit-hole . . . without the least idea what was to happen afterwards;' wrote Lewis Carroll; describing how Alice was conjured up one 'golden afternoon' to entertain a young girl. His dream worlds of nonsensical Wonderland and the back-to-front Looking-Glass kingdom depict order turned upside-down: a baby turns into a pig; time is abandoned at a disordered tea-party and a seven-year-old girl is made Queen. But amongst the anarchic humour and sparkling word play; puzzles and riddles; are poignant moments of nostalgia for lost childhood. Edited with an Introduction and notes by Hugh Haughton