A letter written by Lewis Carroll saying he sometimes wished he had “never written any books at all” has fetched more than £11,800 at a London auction.

The item sold yesterday by Bonhams in Knightsbridge to an anonymous British collector was expected to sell for £3,000 to £4,000.

Written in 1891 under his real name Charles Dodgson, it described the Alice in Wonderland author’s intense dislike for fame, because it led to him “being pointed out to, and stared at by, strangers.”

The writer was also a mathematician and lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford.