Globe columnist Peter Grant meets Wirral-based Artist June Lornie who is simply mad about Alice in Wonderland.

ON reflection, June Lornie has an unusual take on the world.

The artist, who lives in New Brighton, opens her new Alice-themed exhibition at Birkenhead's Rathbone Studio this Tuesday (June 18).

Now she tells the Globe about her admiration for all things 'Alice.'

"As a child I spent most of my life in hospital and visiting days were once a month - the only time I saw my parents."

June recalls that the kindly doctors and nurses became her substitute parents.

"I had to lay on my back so I used a mirror. I always saw the world back-to-front.

"I was told fairy stories by the medical staff- stories such as such as Cinderella and Snow White."

That mirror became more than a passport invitation to open her vivid imagination into a make-believe place.

June said: "I was told about a little girl who went through a looking glass called Alice.

"At the time the story went over my head.

"Characters like the Queen of Hearts and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum stayed in my mind."

Yet it was the character of Alice that inspired June to draw, paint, sew and stitch and also create costumes about her heroine.

"I used to think one day I would sit in a garden and follow a white rabbit down a hole and see all the strange things that Alice in her Wonderland saw and experienced."

As time passed not only on the March Hare watch, June's fascination with Alice grew and grew.

She started her own collection of Alice- themed books and her creative work expanded so much so that two pages of her illustrations appeared in a prestigious magazine.

Along with musician husband David, she joined The Lewis Carroll Society and they are still enthusiastic members to this day.

"I have held many exhibitions with my illustrations of Alice in Wonderland and I have dressed up as the Queen of Hearts to attend many Mad Hatter tea parties, she adds with a giggle.

June also has another ambition regarding Alice.

"One day I hope to start work on Alice Through the Looking Glass - that should keep me busy for a few years."

Alice in Wonderland is on view at the Rathbone Studio, 28 Argyle Street, Birkenhead from this Tuesday until August 31.

The venue is open Tuesdays to Saturday from 2pm to 5pm.

There is also a official exhibition opening of the event by storyteller and illustrator Cathy Roberts of Literally Books, New Brighton on June 21 at 4-7pm.