Alice Versary: 1759-1959- The Guinness Birthday Book
Pamphlet of 16 pages, celebrating the 200th anniversary of Guinness.
Illustrations by Ronald Ferns
Printed by W. S. Cowell Ltd, Ipswich.
Guinness began sending promotional booklets to doctors in 1933, breaking off during World War 2, and restarting again in 1950.
In all, 24 were made, of which five are based on the Alice books: this is the last of the five. All of the booklets were produced by the advertising agency SH Benson, who were also responsible for many of the iconic Guinness ads of the period.
Ronald Ferns (14 October 1925 – 2 December 1997) was an English illustrator, designer, cartoonist and surrealist painter in both oil and watercolour. After training at St. Martins in London, his first major official commission was a vast mural for the 1951 Festival of Britain for the Milk Marketing Board. In the same year, he was also commissioned to create the scenic design for the premiere of Fate’s Revenge by the Ballet Rambert. He later produced children’s books including The Learned Hippopotamus (1986), Caterpillar Stew (1990) and Like It Or Not (1992.
Parodies include The Fish Ball and Curiouser and Curiouser:
‘It must, I fear,’ said Alice, ‘Be something that I ate – I’m opening like a telescope at an alarming rate! And yet I can’t help thinking how useful necks like these would be in any Wonderland where Guinness grows on trees’.
Seems to be the easiest to find of the Guinness Alices. Mine was on ebay- there are usually one or two on amazon: Alice Versary
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