YOUR article ‘Royal Mail launches Alice in Wonderland stamps to celebrate Lewis Carroll classic’ addressed how the personal background of author Lewis Carroll motivated him to write children’s fantasy books like Alice in Wonderland.

While your article brought about many pertinent facts about Carroll’s life and how they could have influenced his writing, it totally omitted the fact that Lewis Carroll struggled with a lifelong stammering problem that inhibited his communication with others.

For instance, Carroll’s father was an Anglican priest; Carroll himself was ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church and most of the major biographies put forth that he did not take the next step and pursue the priesthood because of his stammering.

For the first time in February 2010, researchers identified genes that cause stammering in about nine per cent of the cases of stammering.

Lewis Carroll’s parents were two first cousins who married; nine of the couple’s eleven children stammered into adulthood.

It is safe to say that Lewis Carroll’s family is a prime example of the genetic background of stammering.

So many experts on Lewis Carroll posit that his speech difficulties helped him find that writing gave him a way to express himself.

The non-profit Stuttering Foundation stutteringhelp.org has a fascinating biographical article on Lewis Carroll in the ‘Celebrity Corner’ section of its website which details how his stuttering fuelled his writing.

ED DEPHILLIPS

Fort Lee, New Jersey USA