I was privileged on Saturday, June 7, to be invited to witness my daughter Alice's graduation at the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.

It was a very impressive service, with many fine robes and hats, much erudite Latin and a couple of cracking anecdotes from the University Chancellor, Lord Patten.

I especially enjoyed the one about Bill Bryson's dad and the San Andreas Fault. All much as I expected. However, what did surprise me was my experiences with Oxford time.

Firstly, I had to pick up my son David from Oxford railway station just before 10am.

The 'arrivals' overhead board at the station was fine time-wise, but the 'departure' times were, I was surprised to note, all 12 hours ahead (Bristol 22.01 and so on).

I thought this was a one off, but when I got to the Sheldonian, our entry tickets stated, quite rightly, that the graduation ceremony started at 11am.

However, the same tickets said that seating could be taken from 10.30pm onwards.

Could any of your readers explain this apparent warp in Oxford time - or is it in some way related to the fact that Alice in Wonderland came from Oxford?

ALAN BIGGINS, Great Horwood, Bucks