Lewis Carroll and SW6

Tuesday February 23, 2010

With Johnny Depp starring in Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland film from May, interest in Lewis Carroll's classic children's tale is high - and author Jenny Woolf, whose book The Mystery of Lewis Carroll is out on March 1, is the perfect person to tell us about his Fulham connections.

Author Lewis Carroll spent most of his life at Oxford University, where he told his famous story of Alice in Wonderland.

However, he had several connections with Hammersmith and Fulham. The most interesting one is with the beautiful actress, Isa Bowman, who was close to him in later life.

Isa, her sisters and brother lived with their parents, Charles and Helen, at 20 Oxberry Avenue, near the High Street, and Carroll's diary records several visits there to see them.

He met the family in 1887, when he was 55. He was a passionately keen theatregoer, and knew many actors and actresses personally.

He had been impressed by the then 13-year-old Isa's performance in a minor stage role, and he helped her and her talented siblings to establish their acting careers. The four girls later became successful as The Bowman Sisters.

As Isa grew older, she came to stay with Carroll unchaperoned in Oxford and elsewhere. She called him by pet names and received gifts from him.

They grew so close that people speculated that she might be his young mistress. There is no evidence for this, and in fact it is unlikely.

But interestingly, in a book Isa published just after Carroll's death, she pretended she had only been a small girl during most of their friendship, rather than a young woman.

Modern people sometimes associate Carroll negatively with little girls, but new research now suggests that this is unfair.

He and his friends emphasised the little girls because Victorians disapproved of unmarried men being too friendly with women. And most of Carroll's friends were in fact grown-up women.

Sadly, many of Carroll's letters to Isa perished when her bag containing them fell into the sea.

When Carroll died, aged nearly 66, Isa sent a beautiful wreath to his funeral.

• Jenny Woolf has had a lifelong interest in Carroll and is also the author of Lewis Carroll In His Own Account (2005). Jenny can be found online at her website www.jabberwock.co.uk (opens new window).
• The Mystery of Lewis Carroll is published by Haus Publishing in March, RRP £18.99, and is available through www.hauspublishing.com (opens new window) for £14.25 if you sign up as a 'Friend of Haus' for a discount. Tim Burton's film is out in May.