Storytelling at British Council, Kandy

An interactive storytelling session was conducted by Orlando Edwards, Country Director British Council Sri Lanka, at the British Council Library in Kandy. The kids enjoyed the session giving loud cheers.

British author, mathematician, logician and photographer Charles Dodgson is best known by his pen name of Lewis Carroll.

He is renowned for writing two of the most famous and admired children’s books in the world: ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’ (1865) and its sequel, ‘Through the Looking-Glass’ (1871). Dodgson also wrote poetry for children, including the famous nonsense poem ‘The Hunting of the Snark’ (1876), as well as mathematical treatises.

Carroll was born in Daresbury, England, on January 27, 1832. His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He studied mathematics at Oxford University in England. For most of his life he lived at Oxford while teaching mathematics. He wrote books on mathematics and logic. Dodgson loved to spend time with children. One day in 1862, he rowed up the Thames River together with his friend Reverend Duckworth, accompanied by three young girls who were the daughters of another friend Henry Liddell. One of the girls was named Alice. The journey on a river in Oxford was five miles long, and during the trip, Dodgson told the girls’ tales about a child named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.

Later he used the tales to write ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’. It was published as a book in 1865. In the story Alice crawls into a rabbit hole and meets all sorts of interesting creatures.

Another book about Alice, ‘Through the Looking-Glass’, appeared in 1871. Dodgson wrote the books under the name Lewis Carroll. They were very popular.

Dodgson also used the name Lewis Carroll to write books of poetry for children. In 1876 he published a famous nonsense poem, ‘The Hunting of the Snark’.

He died in Guildford, England, on January 14, 1898.

Fun Facts

Lewis Carroll was one of eleven children. When he was growing up, he often spent time playing literary games with his brothers and sisters. He was also very keen on drawing as a child. Lewis Carroll often used to take the three daughters of his friend, Dean Henry Liddell, for days out and boat trips on the river. It was on one of these trips that he first told the story that became ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

As well as writing children’s books, Lewis Carroll also enjoyed writing poetry, and he was a keen letter writer.

Lewis Carroll produced several works about mathematics when he was working at Oxford University, and he invented the Carroll Diagram (sometimes known as the Lewis Carroll Square), a method of grouping data which is still taught in maths lessons to today.

Lewis Carroll loved puzzles and games. He was a very keen chess player, and there are lots of references to chess (and other games) in his books for children.