AS A distant relative of the real Alice in Wonderland, author Cathy Rubin wanted to find out more about the girl who inspired the world-famous children’s story.

That curiosity led to a four-year project researching the life of Alice Liddell, who inspired Lewis Carroll to write the tale still fascinating readers 150 years on.

Now New York-based Mrs Rubin has written a book, The Real Alice in Wonderland, with her teenage daughter Gabriella. The coffee-table volume proved a hit in the United States, and is now on sale in the UK.

Mrs Rubin, who was at Waterstone’s in Oxford on Wednesday, said: “This year is the 150th anniversary of the first time Lewis Carroll told the story to Alice during that boat trip down the river to Godstow, so it’s a good time for this book to come out.”

The 51-year-old mother-of-two added: “My great-aunt’s great-aunt was Alice Liddell and when my daughter started reading the Alice stories for a school project we both decided to find out more about the real Alice.

“A lot of research was done in Oxford. Staff at Christ Church were very helpful, and we also got a lot of help from the Story Museum, Oxford Botanic Garden and the Oxfordshire County Museum Service.”

Alice Liddell, who died in 1934, was the inspiration for Lewis Carroll’s books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Alice through the Looking Glass (1872).

Her father, Henry Liddell, was the Dean of Christ Church where Carroll – real name Charles Dodgson – was a maths don.