Alice in Sunderland is a graphic novel like no other. Bryan Talbot takes the city of Sunderland and the story of Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell (the 'real' Alice) as the spine of his story and around them spins a spectacularly diverse range of different stories. He explores Carroll's links with Sunderland and shows how the city inspired his masterpieces. He delves into the city's history, from the Venerable Bede to George Formby, from its heyday as the greatest shipbuilding port in the world to its present multicultural mix.
Talbot's artwork is a spectacular mixture of different styles: black and white ink line and pencil drawing, watercolour, collage and digitally manipulated photographic artwork. His stories are told from the stage of the Sunderland Empire theatre, an Edwardian music hall, and the book is a genuine variety performance. In Alice in Sunderland he shows - triumphantly - how local history is national history in microcosm, how one story begets another. The result is a landmark book in the graphic field.
'A generous-hearted, ambitious book...a fine introduction to the graphic novel' -- Daily Telegraph
`You will find much to love here...for its ambition alone my best liked book of 2007' -- Forbidden Planet.co.uk
"magical" -- Irish Times, April 14, 2007
'A gloriously ambitious fusion of myth, history and autobiography
in every imaginable visual style...320-odd pages of non-stop entertainment' -- The Guardian
'Alice in Sunderland is a tour de force landmark in graphic
literature'
-- Independent
'The book is a dizzying head-rush of ideas and information ...'
-- Financial Times - Rev'd James Lovegrove
'one of the most exhilarating books in years...a minor
masterpiece' -- Rachel Cooke, The Observer
`Glorious, panoptic and precise; one of the oddest and cleverest comics there is.'
-- The Daily Telegraph
a multi-layered retelling of British history...aglow with jostling imagery...dazzling" -- Metro, April 13, 2007
