Alice I have been

by Melanie Benjamin

For someone who has always loved the Alice in Wonderland stories, this was a must read for me. I think I did know that Alice was based on a really person, Alice Liddell, before I picked up this book, but I had no idea of the rumour and speculation that surrounded her and Rev. Charles Dodgeson who wrote under the literary pen name of Lewis Caroll. This fictionalization of Alice Liddell's life delves deep into all those rumours around her, assuming the worst and best of characters.

All through her life, Wonderland follows Alice, beginning with her as a carefree, rambunctious yet serious child of seven, unable to keep her clothes clean and with a child's love for the family friend, Dodgeson; her romance with Prince Leopold; her easy marriage to Reginald Hargreaves and her heartache and loss as her sons go off to war. But it isn't until she is old that Alice finally reads the book and finds her own Wonderland.