Sarah Stanfield’s talk ‘Barmy in Wonderland when the Cheshire Cat met the Newt’ given in the Emsworth Community Centre on 7th March gave an insight into the lives and writing careers of both Plum (P G Wodehouse) and Lewis Carroll and how they occasionally overlapped. Even before her illustrated talk began the audience were treated to an onscreen ‘amuse bouche’ of quotes as they settled into their seats.
Readers of the latest Emsworth Echo will know of the research done by Sarah into the writing talents of both Plum and Lewis Carroll. For Emsworth and the Oyster Industry debacle those talents manifested themselves in the poem ‘Avenged!’, the Wodehouse parody of the demise of the Walrus and the Carpenter by Lewis Carroll.
As Sarah pointed out Lewis Carroll was a very influential Victorian writer particularly of children’s literature. By the time the author died in 1898 MacMillan had printed 150,000 copies of Alice in Wonderland and 100,000 copies of Through the Looking Glass. Sales of Wonderland began slowly and steadily, and then began to spiral upwards. Foreign language editions of both books were published, and next to the Bible and Shakespeare, they continue to be two of the most quoted and translated books.
So, what were the crossovers between the authors’ lives and work that convinced Sarah that Plum drew inspiration from Carroll. Without doubt, they are both authors who provide comfort, nostalgia, and escapism in abundance – the Alice novels were taken to the trenches by soldiers of the First World War (both German and English) and to the Antarctic by Plum’s classmate, Ernest Shackleton; and Wodehouse novels were enjoyed by readers during the Second World War and were serialised aplenty during the recent Covid lockdowns. They both had a light and often humorous touch in their writings.
Sarah finished her talk with a quote from writer, Robert McCrum, who said ‘there are two lasting themes in the lives of great writers, love and work’. Both Carroll and Plum had those attributes in abundance, which is why they both endure.
In conclusion EMHT chairman Trevor Davies, thanked Sarah for a thoroughly engaging and memorable talk. Commenting on her valuable researches he added “You have turned over and looked under stones that the rest of us had not really thought to notice”.
