But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.

“Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”

“How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.

“You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

And now that you’re here – in The Mad House – take a look at this gorgeous tea set and realise that it’s the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland, which is one of my all time favourite ever books. It’s the book that I turn to when I’m ill and want a comfort read (well that and the odd Jilly Cooper). It’s the book that I read out loud to my children. It’s the book that I want read out loud to me. And now, I want this tea set too.

You can buy the set, or parts of it, from Mrs Moore’s Vintage Store, run by Ana Moore. She set up her business in 2012 after 25 years working in the City and spending weekends selling vintage tea sets at Portobello Market.

Contrariwise, I actually never drink tea. So this would have to be my coffee set. And curiouser is that I never normally like crockery with writing and pictures. But I am prepared to make an exception for this. That’s logic.

I shall have a mug with Tweedledum and Tweedledee although I have always been a fan of the Red Queen. And don’t forget the tea towels too, which are printed in Wales while the china is silk screen printed and decorated by hand in Stoke on Trent.

Perfect accessories for The Mad House don’t you think? And while I think, there are lots of events going on this year to celebrate the anniversary, the next one of which is between 9 and 22February at the Royal Festival Hall where you get to play Flamingo croquet. No, I have no idea how that’s going to work either but if you can lay your hands on a child between the ages of four and 12 you can go along and find out. It’s free so what have you got to lose?

Apart from your head.

The players all played at once without waiting for turns, quarrelling all the while, and fighting for the hedgehogs; and in a very short time the Queen was in a furious passion, and went stamping about, and shouting ‘Off with his head!’ or ‘Off with her head!’ about once in a minute.

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