LEWIS Carroll's strong links with Ripon will come to life when his story book characters, Alice in Wonderland and the White Rabbit, make a guest appearances in the city's cathedral.

The pair are helping to launch a Christmas gift and food festival which will also include a Mad Hatter's Teashop.

It is being held on Saturday, November 23, from 10am until 4pm, and is in aid of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and Ripon Cathedral's ongoing development campaign.

Northern devotees of Carroll, who died in 1898, bemoan the fact that Ripon is largely ignored when the author is mentioned.

Choir stall carvings in Ripon Cathedral are said to have been the inspiration for the White Rabbit and other animals from the story.

Lewis Carroll - whose real name was Charles Dodgson - often visited Ripon where his father was a cathedral canon. The inspiration for Alice was said to have been sparked by a picture hanging in Sharow vicarage, just over a mile from the cathedral.

Members of the Lewis Carroll Society recently held their annual conference in Ripon, making a special visit to the cathedral.

Carroll was 11 when his father was appointed Rector of Croft, in North Yorkshire, in 1843 and has been described as "The Child of the North". He was a writer and mathematical lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford.

Ripon Cathedral's Christmas festival will be opened by the Mayor of Ripon, Councillor Bernard Bateman. Admission is £2, but free for senior citizens and children