During a fantasy game of chess in Through the Looking Glass, Alice was told that when she became a queen she would have to give a banquet. One hundred and fifty years on, Chris Simms, the executive head chef and the brigade who work with him in Christ Church’s huge kitchen are preparing to turn fantasy into reality.

The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival Dinner this year, which takes place on Saturday, March 31, is to be a celebration of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and that golden afternoon in the summer of 1862 when Charles Dodgson captured the imagination of Alice Liddell and her sisters with stories which were subsequently published under his pseudonym Lewis Carroll and gained world acclaim.

Christ Church was Dodgson’s home for 47 years, so what better place to hold the festival dinner than in the magnificent Great Hall of the college, which is considered to be one of the most splendid halls in England.

It was in the Great Hall that Dodgson admitted to Alice that he had dined there more than 8,000 times. As much of what Dodgson saw around him throughout those years was transacted in his imagination, it is no wonder that the brass firedogs in the fireplace inspired Alice’s neck to grow like a stalk and the college plate and decanters at high table to mysteriously acquire wings.

Once again, the festival menu has been created by the talented food historian Anne Menzies, who has painstakingly picked out every reference to food that appears in the Alice books. It has been a formidable task, which not only called on Anne’s expertise, but on her imagination and ingenuity too.

Those attending the dinner will find that paper labels with the words DRINK ME have been tied to water bottles strategically placed on the table to set the scene. The words EAT ME will be printed on the menu and the staff will be wearing white kid gloves to signify the white rabbit.

The evening kicks off with the Hatter’s Mad Cocktail, created by Hendrick’s Gin and served in tea cups. Fortnum & Mason’s Rosebud tea will be served at the conclusion of the dinner.

Some items on the menu have obvious associations with the Alice stories — Mock Turtle Soup (made to Heston Blumenthal’s recipe) sets the scene. Shells of the turtles used by Christ Church chefs to make turtle soup at a dinner celebrating the 18th birthday of HRH, Edward Prince of Wales still hang besides the fireplace in the college kitchen.

The bread rolls served with the soup will look rather like spiky hedgehogs and the butter will be shaped as a diamond and wearing a ‘best butter’ tag.

Lobster Quadrille — a foursome of lobster with sole, shrimp and salmon in a saffron sauce — will be served with duchesse potatoes and fresh vegetables from the garden. The salad, which will contain Chanterelle mushrooms, will be dressed with a buttercup dressing.

Anne has challenged Chris Simms to find a way of completing the imagery by creating little blue caterpillars to sit on top of the salad. While an edible little caterpillar might be possible, Chris is not sure his team can create one with folded arms quietly smoking a long Hookah. Pebble cakes, however, are possible, though there is no guarantee the guests will shrink in size if they eat one.

Anne admits that to be true to the story line she had no alternative but to place jam tarts on the menu; and so she has come up with a strawberry and black pepper tart which will be standing in a pool of tears and served with Jabberwocky Jinger (see the recipe on the left).

The tears caused a bit of a problem. How do you depict tears on a dish of dessert? Finally, after much experimentation, Anne has come up with a light coulis of blueberries, which creates the effect she was after.

The guest speaker will be Andrew Marr, one of the UK’s best-known political journalists and broadcasters. He will talk about his book The Diamond Queen: Queen Elizabeth II and her People, an account of the Queen’s reign which draws heavily on Marr’s experiences. All guests will be presented with a copy.

To book your place at this imaginative dinner go to: www.oxfordliteraryfestival.org or phone 0870 343 1001.