Recently in Edinburgh we have been enjoying the tale of Alice in Wonderland which is playing at the Lyceum, and in January a musical adaptation called simply Wonderland starring Wendi Peters is also coming to The Playhouse.
Perhaps it was all this magic from Alice all over Edinburgh that made a special edition of the book Alice in Wonderland suddenly appear at Janice Cairns’ house!
Janice Cairns is a book lover and an author, and she was married to Archy Macpherson who loved books perhaps even more than she did. He collected tens of thousands of books for his home library which he created in a spare bedroom. Sadly Archy died in June 2015, leaving the extensive library for his wife to sort out.
Some of the books have been snapped up by the National Library of Scotland, some have gone to various charity shops as donations, but one book which will definitely be moving with Janice is Alice in Wonderland!
During her recent house clearance ahead of moving, Janice suddenly found a very old copy of Alice in Wonderland which she has been told dates from around 1930.
It has a lovely cartoon on the front and colour illustrations throughout and she shared it recently with The Edinburgh Reporter. Here she is telling us about the book and her late husband Archy, who was a solicitor and law lecturer during his lifetime:
Janice’s own literary career began with her first novel Forgiving Nancy, and when the dust settles after her move she is to take up her pen again and continue with her second book.
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