WHO at the time could ever have predicted that when Lewis Carroll first dreamed up and published his children’s fantasy tale of Alice in Wonderland that it would have become a huge global hit 150 years later, and for all ages?

Well, this was very much evident at the launch of an exhibition in West Kirby featuring paintings and drawings of Alice, the Mad Hatter, the Queen of Hearts and the White Rabbit, among other unlikely chums, by artist June Lornie.

Wirral Globe:

Colin Simpson, director of Williamson Art Gallery, with artist June Lornie 

A lifelong devotee of Carroll’s creative genius, June felt it was important to mark the anniversary of the first edition of the book, which falls in November this year.

Perversely considering her passion for the earthly nether regions depicted in the book, June, rather than living ‘down the rabbit hole’, as Carroll dreamed up, actually lives high up in a penthouse apartment in New Brighton.

Now semi-retired, for many years she ran the well-known Liverpool Academy of Arts gallery with her husband Dave where they staged many popular exhibitions of local artists, and on several occasions featuring the subject of Alice by June and other artists.

“I have been fascinated with Alice since I was a little girl and when I became a theatrical costumier and put on fashion shows I would always manage to include Alice in some form or other,” said June who has been painting the characters and scenes for as long as she can remember.

The display in the West Kirby Library features nearly 30 of June’s vivid and lively paintings based on Lewis Carroll’s madcap characters along with a series of wooden dioramas of the scenes from the book and beautifully carved colourful figurines by David Nickson and Frank Aston.

The show was opened by the director of Birkenhead’s Williamson Art Gallery Colin Simpson who said: “The story of Alice has been an inspiration for artists since she first came alive in the pages of Lewis Carroll’s book.

And this exhibition is a great tribute to the lasting popularity of the story.”

After persuasion by the Daresbury Lewis Carroll Society, the little Cheshire town where Carroll (Charles Dodgson) was born, two years ago June published a book of her paintings linked to a narrative of the Alice stories, although she laughs that she is not a rival to John Tenniel who illustrated the first book.

And Irene Rutter, a member of the Society, is delivering a talk about Lewis Carroll at the exhibition on Friday, July 3, at 2pm.

Down The Rabbit Hole – A Celebration of Alice in Wonderland until Saturday, July 11, Monday to Saturday, 11am to 4pm, in West Kirby library, The Concourse,

Telephone: 0151 606 2665.