About the talks
Adventure into Wonderland with Oxford’s annual celebration of all things Alice on Alice’s Day.
As 2026 marks 150 years since the publication of ‘The Snark’, the Weston Library will be hosting a series of talks themed around Nonsense Poetry from the Lewis Carroll Society, as well as a special screening of the 2023 film The Hunting of the Snark by Simon DaVison.
Find out more about our Alice's Day celebrations at the Weston Library, or browse the full programme for 2026.
Lewis Carroll’s ‘Useful and Instructive’ limericks
Mark Davies, Lewis Carroll Society | 10.45 – 11.25
Four limericks by Lewis Carroll which were recently discovered by the speaker are unusual and revealing because they relate to real people (such as the ‘raw Don’ below). The Oxford acquaintances in question were tactfully unidentified, so it was a riddle of sorts to deduce that one of them has particularly intimate Wonderland associations. Carroll had first experimented with the humorous five-line format in a family magazine he produced as a boy, even before Edward Lear popularised the concept.
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“Say ‘How D’Ye Do?’ and Shake Hands”
Matt Crandall, Disney Alice collector and author | 11.30 – 12.10
How Lewis Carroll’s verses helped Walt Disney sell Alice in Wonderland. On the 75th anniversary of Walt Disney’s animated film, an exploration of the songs inspired by verse and text from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass, and their importance to the film’s marketing and merchandise.
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Lewis Carroll, Darwin, and The Hunting of the Snark
Stephen Thetford, Lewis Carroll Society | 12.15 – 12.55
Starting with a copy of The Annotated Snark in 1974, the speaker has spent years discovering the historical and scientific background to Lewis Carroll's wonderful 'nonsense' poem. The motley crew going on a Snark hunt mimic the Pickwickian comic gentlemen of Dickens, sailing on a quest that parodies Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle. Carroll's illustrator, Henry Holiday, was an experienced science artist who could caricature Victorian explorations such as the survey of the world's oceans by HMS Challenger. Together they created a masterpiece.
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The Hunting of the Snark: a 2023 film by Simon DaVison
13.45 – 15.30 | Film duration 90 minutes, rated PG
‘The Hunting of the Snark’ is a feature film based on Lewis Carroll’s follow-up to the Alice books. Set on a tropical island, it is a brilliant, wonderland mix of nonsense, twisted logic and surreal adventure. It also has at its core a powerful and emotional quest – the human search for meaning and an understanding of the universe. What is the Snark? Why is it always so elusive? The film stars Ramon Tikaram (‘Kaos’, ‘Game of Thrones’) and Corinne Furman (‘Fisherman's Friends’).
Film screening includes introduction and Q&A with the director, Simon DaVison.
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Event information
- These talks take place in person in the Sir Victor Blank Lecture Theatre at the Weston Library.
- The Weston Library is wheelchair accessible. Find out more about accessibility at our site.
- Please note: only bottled water is permitted in the lecture theatre. No food or other drinks are allowed.
