Alice jumps to her feet, knocking over the jury box in her hurry. Hastily, she replaces all the creatures who have fallen out onto the floor. The King tells her that "Rule Forty-two" bans from court anyone more than a mile high, but Alice refuses to leave.
 
 The King subjects the Knave to a meaningless grilling and then sums up the evidence with hilarious ineptness. The Queen announces that the Knave should be sentenced before the verdict is reached. Alice blares out, "Stuff and nonsense!" Shocked, the Queen shouts, "Off with her head!" Alice, now her full size, says, "You're nothing but a pack of cards!" Immediately, the whole pack soars into the air and rains down on her head.
 
 Alice wakes to find herself back on the riverbank, with her older sister brushing fallen leaves off Alice's face.
 
 Chapter 12 was wonderfully read by:
 
Phyllis Logan
Martin Delaney
Harriet Walter
Henry Goodman
Christopher Biggins
David Menkin
Andrew Zadrejko
Della Phillips
Patricia Hodge
Stephen McCarthy
Brad Shaw 

Back on the croquet lawn, Alice and the Gryphon learn that the Knave of Hearts has been charged with stealing a plate of tarts. The bewigged King of Hearts is serving as judge in the trial, and 12 creatures make up the jury. The White Rabbit is acting as herald.
 
 "Consider your verdict," the King tells the jury before the trial even begins. It's clear the whole proceeding will be a shambles. In the midst of the confusion, Alice realizes that she's starting to grow again. The next witness is the Duchess's Cook, who refuses to give evidence and slips away in the confusion. Alice is startled to hear her own name being called as the third witness.
 
 Chapter 11 is wonderfully read by:
 
Mark Fernandes
Elizabeth jobling
Rebecca Courtney
Janine Cooper-Marshall
Will Harrison-Wallace
Jane Perry
John Challis
Ruth Jones
Jo Ashe (Narrator of the year)
Rosie Ashe 

Though the Mock Turtle is crying almost too hard to talk, it manages to sob out that Alice has probably never heard of a Lobster Quadrille. When she agrees that she has not, the Mock Turtle becomes a vortex of energy. He and the Gryphon scream out instructions while "capering wildly about." With equal suddenness, they collapse and look mournfully at Alice. Then they dance solemnly around her, singing.
 
 The dancing over, they ask Alice to recite some lessons for them. She obediently does so, getting the words wrong. Then the Mock Turtle begins to weep out a song about turtle soup. In mid-song, someone calls, "The trial is starting!" The Gryphon takes Alice's hand and rushes her away.
 
 Chapter 10 is wonderfully read by:
 
  Elizabeth Bloom
  Ben Norris
  Jared Zeus
  Alexandra Metaxa
  Margaret Ashley
  Natalie Chisholm
  Eilidh Beaton
  Philip Labey
  Griff Rhys Jones
  Matthew Gravelle
  Michael Lumsden
  Cathy Smith
 Julia Winwood 

Alice and the Duchess (who's been reprieved from execution) stroll around the garden together until the Queen commands Alice to return to the game. When the game dissolves because the Queen has put all the players under sentence of death, the Queen takes Alice to meet the Gryphon, who introduces Alice to the Mock Turtle.
 
 The Mock Turtle dolefully tells Alice a long, sad story about his education until the Gryphon interrupts and says, "Tell her something about the games."
 
 Chapter 9 is wonderfully read by:
 
Anna Bentinck
Mali Harries
Rory Barnett
T.Anthony Quinn
Malk Williams
Ewan Bailey
Andrew Pepper
Mitch Jenkins
Christina Kowalchuk
Arthur Darvill
Richard Wells
Philip Banks
Ian Pringle 

At the garden entrance, Alice sees three gardeners painting some white roses red. Before they can finish, a royal procession begins filing in. Last to arrive are the most important: the King and Queen of Hearts and their court. All of these characters take the form of animated playing cards.
 
 Furious at everyone and everything, the Queen of Hearts constantly orders beheadings. Fortunately, the Queen is distractible, and Alice—along with the Duchess—joins the croquet game everyone has come to play. The game is thoroughly confusing; no one is following the rules. Alice complains about this to the Cheshire Cat when its head shows up in the sky above her. The Queen orders that this head also be cut off, but the Cheshire Cat disappears before anyone can decide how to carry out the order.
 
 Chapter 8 is wonderfully read by:
 
Joshua Manning
Laurel Lefkow
Mark Desebrock
Matthew Wycliffe
Angus Imrie
Antonia Beamish
Kevin McNally
Matt Beauman Jones
Annette Rizzo
Charlotte Sanderson
Rachael Beresford
Ben Stock
Emma Stannard
Charlie Brunton
Duncan Smith
Pearl Hewitt 

In front of the Hatter's house, a long tea table is set under a tree. The March Hare, the Hatter, and a sleepy Dormouse are sitting at one end. They shout, "No room!"—but Alice indignantly sits down, and they have a conversation about meaning and time. The Dormouse tells Alice a story and then falls asleep at the table. Alice is so disgusted by the rudeness of the three that she leaves.
 
 Alice reenters the long hall, takes up the golden key, and walks into the garden she's been waiting so long to visit.
 
 Chapter 7 is wonderfully read by:
 
Tania Rodrigues

Chris Nelson

Peter Kenny

Katherine Fenton

Jennifer Woodward

Claire Morgan

Ian Porter

Gareth Pierce

Jane Collingwood

Siobbhan Shaw

Emma Wheeler

Amy Shindler

Sarah Belcher

Patrick Lamb

Alice reaches a strange house and hears terrible howling and screaming inside. She enters to find a kitchen, where the Cook is stirring a very peppery soup. In the middle of the room, the Duchess is holding (and occasionally shaking) a screaming baby boy, who is also sneezing nonstop because of the pepper.
 
The Duchess hands the baby over to Alice, who takes him outside. Gradually, the baby turns into a pig, which Alice turns loose. She then spots the Cheshire Cat in a tree, who gives her directions to the Hatter's. When Alice remarks that she doesn't want to "go among mad people," the Cheshire Cat says, "We're all mad here." 
 
Chapter 6 is wonderfully read by:
 

Harley Viveash
Emerald O'Hanrahan
Charlotte Martin
Susie Riddell
Sam Devereaux
Clare Corbett
Christopher Ragland
Rachael Louise Miller
Alex Wingfield
Katie Redford
Timothy Bentinck MBE
Ben Elliot
Jenny Bryce
Harriet Kershaw
Kate Rawson
Steven Kynman

The Caterpillar stares at Alice before asking her who she is. They have a confusing and roundabout conversation. Before he crawls away, the Caterpillar tells Alice that eating one side of the mushroom will make her tall and eating the other will make her short. Alice tries a bit of mushroom edge and shrinks until her chin hits her foot. She tries a piece from the other side and grows until she's taller than the trees and has a long, snakelike neck.
 
 The Pigeon begins flying frantically around Alice's head, accusing her of being a serpent hunting for bird eggs. Unable to persuade the Pigeon that she's a little girl, Alice takes alternating bites of the mushroom pieces until she's nine inches tall, seemingly the perfect height for Wonderland.
 
 Chapter 5 is wonderfully read by:
 
Beth Chalmers
Ramesh Mahtani
Michelle O'Callaghan
Danielle Cohen
Gyles Brandreth
Raj Ghatak
Samantha Boffin
Tom Sterling
Benet Brandreth
Toby Laurence
Kosha Engler
Tara Ward
Juliet Stevenson
Clare Louise Connolly

As Alice sits alone in the hall, the White Rabbit passes again. This time he mistakes her for his housemaid, Mary Ann, and orders her to fetch him some gloves and a fan. Alice makes her way to the White Rabbit's house. In addition to the fan and gloves, she finds a little bottle whose contents she decides to try. Instantly, she starts growing until her body fills the entire house.
 
The White Rabbit comes to his house in search of Mary Ann. Seeing Alice's huge arm sticking out of the window, he sends for help. A crowd of animals throw pebbles through the window, and the pebbles change into little cakes. Alice eats one to see if it will shrink her. It does, and tiny Alice runs out of the house. After escaping from a puppy, she spots a mushroom with the Caterpillar sitting on top. The Caterpillar is smoking a hookah.
 
Chapter 4 is wonderfully read by:
 
Penelope Rawlins
Elisa Canas
Peter Noble
Gina Mellotte
Lorraine Cairney
Robbie Stevens
Simon Johns
Gwen Watson
Sarah-Jane Vincent
Steve Jones
a e Scanlon
Gerard Carey
Emma Davis
Sarah Gain
David Firth
Stevie Cripps
Susie Coleman 

Alice, the Mouse, and several other animals climb out of the pool of tears. The Mouse tells a "dry" story to dry them off. When this doesn't work, the Dodo suggests they hold a "Caucus-race." This turns out to mean running in a circle for half an hour, after which the Dodo declares that everyone is the winner. Alice hands out prizes, and the Mouse tells another story—this one a "tale" that turns out, when written on the page, to be shaped like a mouse's tail. Naturally, Alice doesn't understand what's happening, and the Mouse leaves in a huff. The other animals soon follow, leaving Alice alone again.
 
 Chapter 3 is wonderfully read by:
 
Helen Goldwyn
Stephen McCarthy
Aidan Bell
Sean Connolly
Bella Hamblin
Ellie Rose Boswell
Helen Lloyd
Elizabeth Bower
Ana Clements
Michelle O'Callaghan
Gay Soper
Faye Dicker