The Westminster Alice

The Westminster Alice, published in 1902, is Saki's first book — a series of political satires originally appearing in The Westminster Gazette, with illustrations by F. Carruthers Gould. Using the framework of Alice in Wonderland, the young H.H. Munro sends his Alice through a parliamentary looking-glass where she meets figures unmistakably modelled on Balfour, Chamberlain, Rosebery, and other politicians of the day. Though the specific political references have faded, the pieces retain their bite as demonstrations of Saki's early mastery of parody and his instinct for the absurd in public life.