Literary exhibition opens

8:55am Thursday 8th February 2007

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A new exhibition highlighting Oxford's literary connections is being staged at the Museum of Oxford.

Children's writer Philip Pullman will open The A-Z of Literary Oxford at 12.30pm on Saturday at the museum in Blue Boar Street.

The exhibition takes visitors on an alphabetical trail from 'A' for Alice in Wonderland, past 'H' for Hobbit, right through to 'Z' for Zuleika Dobson.

Elizabeth Sleight, a spokesman for the Story Museum, which is hoping to build a £4m centre for children's books, said: "The literary treasures and quirky items on display will include the real Alice's dress and pocket watch, some manuscript pages from Mr Pullman's Northern Lights, original printing blocks and copper plates from Oxford University Press and a letter from JRR Tolkien."

After the official opening with Lord Mayor Jim Campbell, Mr Pullman will be meeting children and signing books from 1pm to 2pm.

To round off the day, the Story Museum is joining forces with the museum to present illustrator Ted Dewan's The Sorcerer's Apprentice, at 2pm.

Youngsters can enjoy an updated version of the classic tale, using slides and music before joining Mr Dewan for a workshop on how to make robots.

Tickets to meet Mr Pullman are free but limited in number, while tickets for The Sorcerer's Apprentice and robot-making workshop are £5 for children and £3 for accompanying adults.

For further information, call the museum on 01865 252761.

THAT A TO Z ...

A is for Alice - heroine of Lewis Carroll's books

B is for booksellers - Blackwells etc

C is for contemporary authors - Mark Haddon, Val Biro, John Wain, Geraldine McCaughrean, Joanne Trollope ...

D is for dictionaries

E is for encyclopaedias

F is for films based on books - Brideshead Revisited ...

G is for gardens and meadows - Jerome K Jerome, Kenneth Grahame, Lewis Carroll ...

H is for Hobbit - JRR Tolkien

I is for Inklings - JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis, Charles Williams

J is for journals and journalists

K is for Kelmscott - William Morris

L is for libraries

M is for murder and mystery - Colin Dexter, Dorothy L Sayers, John Le Carre, Veronica Stallwood ...

N is Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

O is for Oxford

P is for printing and the Oxford University Press

Q is for quotes

R is for religion and rebellion

S is for students in literature

T is for theatre

U is for universities - authors who studied or taught in Oxford: Richard Adams, Rev WV Awdry, TE Lawrence, Graham Greene ...

V is for verse - poets, Percy Byshe Shelley, WB Yeats, TS Eliot, Philip Larkin, WH Auden ...

W is for women authors - including Iris Murdoch, Virginia Woolf, Barbara Pym, Penelope Lively and Vera Brittain

X is for Xmas - Christmas Stories and Poems by JRR Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, John Donne and Christmas Carols printed by OUP

Y is for 'your turn' - a chance for visitors take the chance to tell the museum about their own favourite book

Z for Zuleika - Zuleika Dobson or An Oxford Love Story by Max Beerbohm