Tricky poetic licence

A new interpretation of Lewis Carroll's "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is circulating among staff at the University of Cambridge. The poem tells how the walrus and the carpenter trick dozens of oysters into going for a walk with them before turning on them and devouring them all.

Any resemblance between the walrus and Cambridge's hirsute pro vice-chancellor Malcolm Grant, the man behind the reform of governance, is coincidental. Likewise any resemblance between the carpenter and Gordon Johnston, the president of Wolfson College who is leading the consultation on governance reform.