6 life lessons from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

The wisdom of Wonderland.

life lessons from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
The Mad Hatter's tea party
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At 150 years old, topsy-turvy Wonderland has clocked up some 54,600 unbirthdays, so it really ought to know what it’s talking about. Annunciata Walton picks six of the best lessons to be learned down the rabbit hole, where the best people are mad, there’s always time for tea and ravens are much like writing desks. ‘What a curious plan!’ exclaimed Alice. ‘That’s the reason they’re called lessons,’ the Gryphon remarked: ‘because they lessen from day to day.’

For when you’re faced with a daunting task: The white rabbit put on his spectacles. ‘Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?’ he asked. ‘Begin at the beginning,’ the King said very gravely, ‘and go on till you come to the end: then stop.’

For when you’re eager to get things done: ‘If everybody minded their own business,’ the Duchess said in a hoarse growl, ‘the world would go round a deal faster than it does.’

For when you’re feeling pessimistic: ‘I’m just one hundred and one, five months and a day’ [said the Queen]. ‘I can’t believe that!’ said Alice. ‘Can’t you?’ the Queen said in a pitying tone. ‘Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.’ Alice laughed. ‘There's no use trying,’ she said: ‘One can't believe impossible things.’ ‘I daresay you haven't had much practice,’ said the Queen. ‘When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.’

For when you’re being silly: If you drink much from a bottle marked ‘poison’ it is certain to disagree with you sooner or later.

For when the bigger picture is nowhere in sight: ‘How long is forever?’ asked Alice. ‘Sometimes, just one second,’ replied the White Rabbit.

For when you’re not in the mood for advice: ‘No wise fish would go anywhere without a porpoise.’

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Annunciata Elwes
Annunciata Elwes

Annunciata grew up in the wilds of Lancashire and now lives in Hampshire with a husband, two daughters and an awful pug called Parsley. She’s been floating round the Country Life office for more than a decade, her work winning the Property Magazine of the Year Award in 2022 (Property Press Awards). Before that, she had a two-year stint writing ‘all kinds of fiction’ for The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, worked in internal comms for Country Life’s publisher (which has had many names in recent years but was then called IPC Media), and spent another year researching for a historical biographer, whose then primary focus was Graham Greene and John Henry Newman and whose filing system was a collection of wardrobes and chests of drawers filled with torn scraps of paper. During this time, she regularly gave tours of 17th-century Milton Manor, Oxfordshire, which may or may not have been designed by Inigo Jones, and co-founded a literary, art and music festival, at which Johnny Flynn headlined. When not writing and editing for Country Life, Annunciata is also a director of TIN MAN ART, a contemporary art gallery founded in 2021 by her husband, James Elwes.

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