It is the ultimate book about Alice - comprehensive and scholarly, but so delightfully and elegantly written that it's a true work of literature -- Jacqueline Wilson
The Story of Alice is the best book on the myriad enigmas of Carroll's heart-breaking wonderland I have ever read -- Robert McCrum * Observer *
Superb...toweringly the best of the dozens of books on Carroll which I have read -- AN Wilson * Financial Times *
Douglas-Fairhurst is a startling and exciting writer -- A.S. Byatt * Spectator *
This is biography at its best -- Lyndall Gordon * New Statesman *
Magnificent -- 5 Stars, Charlotte Heathcote * Sunday Express *
Fascinating -- Book of the Week, Philip Collins * Times *
This accomplished book provides ample inspiration for readers to return to Wonderland -- Francesca Wade * Prospect *
Different times, and Robert Douglas-Fairhurst makes a sure-footed guide in unraveling them...intriguing -- Anthony Quinn * Mail on Sunday *
A fascinating telling of a great mystery story * The Times *
It did for me what any good critical work should do: it sent me back to Alice for the first time in over 40 years -- Vanessa Berridge, 4 stars * Daily Express *
[A] scholarly, playful and richly entertaining study -- Jane Shilling * Evening Standard *
The Story of Alice takes us, full throttle, back to the unalloyed passion of reading. This is what it is like to open a book, and to wonder -- Frances Wilson, 5 stars * Daily Telegraph *
A sparkling, highly readable and erudite study -- Nicola Shulman * Oldie *
The Story of Alice is much more than its coy title. It is the story of several Alices... Above all it is the story of Lewis Carroll -- Brian Sewell * Independent On Sunday *
Douglas-Fairhurst provides the best readings of the Alice books I have come across... It returns the reader to the books, and in doing so performs an inestimable service to the author, his inspiration and legions of readers -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *
Superb...you feel a wise critic and a master biographer telling the story of an unfolding literary imagination -- AN Wilson * Financial Times *
[A] masterful biography -- Anne Cunningham * Irish Independent *
[Douglas-Fairhurst's] astute and subtle commentary illumines the world of Lewis Carroll and Alice, with all its attributes and attitudes. Scholarly, engrossing and comprehensive, The Story of Alice, like Alice itself, raises the spirits while extolling ambiguity and unpredictability -- Patricia Craig * Irish Times *
A delicate and no doubt definitive summing up of Alice studies to date -- Alexander Lucie-Smith * Tablet *
