International Women's Day: Alice the Adventurer

Happy International Women's Day!

When I was writing Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland someone asked me whether I realised that by featuring Alice as the protagonist I was enfranchising a whole generation of pre-teen girls. To be honest, I hadn't. It hadn't been a conscious decision. But then I have a pre-teen girl all of my very own now, so subconsciously something must have rubbed off.

Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland also passes the Bechdel test, which, in case you were unaware, asks whether a work of fiction features at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. The requirement that the two women must be named is sometimes added.

This one was quite easy, partly because my book took its lead from Carroll's classic, and partly because it was important to me that Alice wasn't sexualised in any way. In the book she is eleven years old, and so she behaves as an eleven year-old would (if the eleven year-old in question goes around wielding a massive two-handed sword, of course).

You can pick up your copy of Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland and the Alice's Nightmare in Wonderland Colouring Book here.