UR TV CAST

The word “dormouse” evokes his name, as does the M-joke at the tea party, where the Dormouse tells of the sisters in the treacle well drawing things beginning with “M”.As for the March Hare, he may be Julius Hare, a theologian friend of Kingsley’s who had a reputation both for poor public speaking and for forgetting the presence of guests invited to dinner.The languid Caterpillar, which Alice meets sitting on a mushroom smoking a hookah, may also be a play on words to suggest Joseph Hooker, appointed director of Kew Gardens at the time Carroll was writing. His fellow botanists were known for smoking opium, a habit they had picked up on collecting trips to China.Other Victorian personalities who are said to pop up in the book in disguise are Disraeli, as the pathetic lizard Bill; Ellen Terry, the actress, as the Tiger-Lily; and Thackeray, the author of Vanity Fair, as the White Queen. Finally, the squabbling Tweedledee and Tweedledum, who appear in Through the Looking Glass, have in the past been seen as an allegory for the High and Low Church or Oxford and Cambridge, but the authors claim they were modelled on the poet Tennyson’s spoilt children, Lionel and Hallam.Elwyn-Jones and Gladstone began their quest after discovering a link between Carroll and the Victorian prime minister W E. Gladstone (an ancestor), himself a Christ Church scholar, which they believe identified him as the Unicorn.Their claims, however, will not go unchallenged. Morton Cohen, a leading Carroll scholar, welcomed the fresh research last week but questioned some of its conclusions. “Ruskin is not the Gryphon but the Drawling Master described by the Mock Turtle,” he said, “while the Hatter’s tea party has been called a parody of everything from evolution to religion.

I don’t think Carroll would have parodied Maurice as the Dormouse because he worshipped him – he was his idol. Nor do I think Carroll would have satirised other religious figures because he had taken Orders and his religion was sacrosanct.”Elwyn-Jones believes that their work will force a reassessment of Carroll: “We are convinced of the existence of these secret parodies because the Alice books were so much his best work He was feeding off the reality around him.”. “I FELT as though I was in a box with no opening. I couldn’t make any decisions at a time when I was desperate to do something. Until they released the body, I was in limbo.”

Lin Pearman – whose daughter, Natalie, 16, died at the hands of a strangler after a tragic descent into drugs and prostitution – stayed in her private limbo for five months.
Not only did Mrs Pearman have to overcome the loss of Natalie as a daughter – the teenager ran away from her Norfolk home in 1991 – and the appalling way in which she died, she also had to contend with the thought of the murdered girl lying in a refrigerated drawer in a mortuary night after night.The five-month delay was caused by the failure to capture Natalie’s killer and the convention that a single post-mortem examination is not usually enough in a murder case. When a suspect is arrested, he or she usually insists on another autopsy, so victims remain in storage for months, sometimes years.”Natalie was found in the early hours of 20 November, 1992, on the Ringland Hill, outside Norwich,” Mrs Pearman said “It was a horrendous shock.

You feel so helpless because it is a situation which you have never come across before.”They held the [opening] inquest straight away, but we had to wait four months before they held the second one. Then they said the body would be released in three to four weeks. While I was waiting, I felt as if I was hitting my head against a brick wall. I couldn’t make any decisions.”The helplessness of Mrs Pearman and scores like her is troubling pathologists so much that the British Medical Association is planning to write to Michael Howard, the Home Secretary, and ask him to introduce a scheme in which a second, independent autopsy can be carried out for the use of suspects’ lawyers after an arrest is made. Such a move would free bodies for burial within days or weeks.Forensic pathologist Dr David Pickersgill, a Norfolk GP and chairman of the BMA’s forensic sub-committee, is among those calling for a change.”We want to try to ease the burden for families of murder victims while recognising the needs of the accused,” he said.

“The problem is not just in cases where no one is charged, but also in cases where several people are charged and they all want their own post-mortem examinations carried out.”While one can understand that someone might want their own pathologist, it is unusual for anything to emerge in a subsequent post-mortem examination that did not emerge in the first. Yet the long delays increase the grief of the bereaved family.”Next week, the body of pensioner James Alexander, who was found murdered at his flat in Hampstead, north London, 22 months ago, will finally be released for burial. Owen Davies, an English teacher, was charged with the murder almost six months ago. His solicitors agreed to the move after being given a three-week deadline by the St Pancras coroner.Only last week, Edwin Wilson, from Burton Fleming, north Humberside, buried his 66-year-old wife Margaret – who had been murdered – after a four- month delay.After the funeral, Mr Wilson said: “It would have helped us quite a lot if we could have buried her sooner It was like a waiting game They were waiting in case they caught someone It didn’t stop us grieving though. We have been grieving for her ever since it happened.”Dr John Burton, coroner for Hammersmith and Fulham, west London, and also a member of the BMA forensic sub-committee, said: “One problem about releasing the body before an arrest is made, is that you are signalling to the assailant that the police are not on to them. A second post-mortem examination would not solve all the problems, but it would be better than nothing.”For Mrs Pearman, her daughter’s funeral was a way of coming to terms with death: “Now that Natalie has a grave, there is somewhere I can go to grieve.”. ON FRIDAY night at the first full council meeting following publication of the report each member of the ruling Labour group publicly denied membership of the Knights.