Forget the other imitators of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’ books. This one by Anna James is the closest we will probably get! It has an authentic style, lots of nonsense, talking creatures, questions of logic and identity, odd poems, whimsical illustrations (by Matthew Land), changing sizes, and more. It also has a historical context of just after the Great War, which informs the themes of the book.

The main character is Alyce (spelt with a ‘y’), the granddaughter of the original Alice, who finds an invitation to a tea party and ends up in Wonderland. She’d thought her grandmother’s stories were made-up but she discovers they are real. The Hatter (he’s not described as mad, probably due to political correctness) explains that the Sun King and the Queen of the Moon are fighting over a stolen hour and that Alyce must find a way to stop the war. Her companion for most of the way is a Fox who checks papers at the checkpoint.

I enjoyed the book because it’s very much like (of course, not as good as) the original. I think you have to be a fan of the writing style of the ‘Alice’ books, not only the content and characters. I was interested that the story was not framed as a dream this time and was actually real; Alyce brings home souvenirs. The story is not as long as it appears, because there’s some of another book by Anna James at the end, followed by some of Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’. I’m not sure the latter is necessary, because if you’re reading a sequel to the Alice books, you’ve obviously read those books and probably own them.

Published by HarperCollins, 2025.