What's so great about Lewis Carroll?

Countless retellings and adaptations pay homage to the enduring popularity of Alice in Wonderland author Lewis Carroll. This panel featuring writers Patrice Lawrence and Irenosen Okojie examines his legacy, spanning two centuries of shifting tastes and opinions. In addition, Chris Riddell will be illustrating the panel live on stage in the style of John Tenniel’s original Alice. Plus Joyce Carol Oates as the Red Queen – what more could you wish for?

Presented in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature (RSL).

Panel members and participants
Patrice Lawrence’s debut novel, Orangeboy, won the Waterstone's Book Prize for Older Readers and the YA Book Prize. Her second novel, Indigo Donut, won the Crime Fest Best Crime Fiction for Young Adults. She won the inaugural Jhalak Prize for Children and Young People for Eight Pieces of Silva. She is the first writer ambassador for the young people's creative writing charity, First Story.

Joyce Carol Oates is one of America’s most respected literary figures. She has written some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including We Were the Mulvaneys, Blonde and the recently-released novel Breathe. She is the Roger S. Berlind Distinguished Professor of Humanities at Princeton University and a recipient of the National Book Award and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in Short Fiction.

Chris Riddell is an illustrator, author and political cartoonist for the Observer. He has won a number of major prizes, including the prestigious CILIP Kate Greenaway Medal an unprecedented three times, and the Costa Book Award. This year, Chris has illustrated a new edition of Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll and in 2020 he also illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Leone Ross’ first novel, All the Blood Is Red, was longlisted for the Orange Prize, and her second novel, Orange Laughter, was chosen as a BBC Radio 4 Women’s Hour Watershed Fiction favourite. Her short fiction has been widely anthologised and her first short-story collection, the 2017 Come Let Us Sing Anyway was nominated for the Edge Hill Short Story Prize, the Jhalak Prize, the Saboteur Awards and the OCM BOCAS Prize. Her present novel, This One Sky Day (Faber) was shortlisted for this year’s Goldsmiths Prize.