Why has Carroll (or Dodgson, to give him his real name), a sedentary, colourless mathematics professor, caused so many biographies and studies to be written about him? Does modern voyeurist taste hope to find some sinister aspect to his love of photographing little girls in the nude? There is none, in fact; he was entirely asexual, virtuous, a martyr to duty and a workaholic. Is it a taste for Victorian eccentrics? In that case, Edward Lear is more interesting and certainly more likeable. At least Michael Bakewell brings out the fact that Dodgson was shrewd and capable in practical matters, including business affairs, that he was well able for academic infighting and, rather surprisingly, that he was a dedicated theatregoer.