Summary
Writer Lynne Truss chooses the creator of Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll.
Famous for the Alice books, Carroll was also a brilliant mathematician and early photographer.
But his reputation has been clouded by allegations, never substantiated, that he was a repressed paedophile.
Lynne and presenter Matthew Parris try to discover why, despite the millions of words written about him, Carroll still remains a mystery.
With assistance from biographer Robin Wilson.
Producer: Jolyon Jenkins
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in May 2011.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My name is Annie Matmanis and my name is Nick Grimshaw. How long have we known each other babe? |
| 0:05.0 | Probably 20 years now and in that time we've always worked in and around music right? |
| 0:10.0 | We have. So it kind of makes sense that we do a podcast better. It sounds |
| 0:13.9 | like he's been 20 years in the making. It's not a avatar for podcasts basically, but it is good. |
| 0:18.6 | So we put the world to rights with |
| 0:23.3 | your mate about over a pint. |
| 0:24.7 | Side-tracked with us, Annie and Nick, listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:29.7 | Thank you for |
| 0:33.4 | downloading this great lives podcast from BBC Radio 4. For more information and details of other podcasts |
| 0:36.3 | just visit BBC.co. UK slash radio 4. |
| 0:41.3 | My guest this week is a journalist, novelist, playwright and broadcaster who shot to |
| 0:46.5 | fame as the peddance-pedant eight years ago with her book eats, shoots and |
| 0:51.3 | leaves the zero tolerance approach to punctuation. |
| 0:55.0 | She is Lynn Truss. |
| 0:56.3 | Lynn, welcome. |
| 0:57.3 | Thank you. |
| 0:58.3 | You've chosen as your great life a rather difficult personality. |
| 1:02.3 | Difficult for two reasons. First because his achievements, though great, are rather |
| 1:06.2 | sparse, he isn't famous for much. And second because his character has been interpreted, indeed |
| 1:12.1 | over-interpreted for nearly a century, so much so |
| 1:14.8 | that it's sometimes hard to see the real man underneath the layers of interpretation. |
| 1:19.7 | Who is he? |
... |
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