Take a detour this Sunday to a bookshop in Kilburn and who knows what you’ll discover.

Karen Georghiou will be at Offside Books in Willesden Lane at 3pm reading excerpts from her book of short stories Alice Took a Detour.

The 33-year-old became obsessed with Lewis Carroll’s novel following a psychotic breakdown in her teens.

She said: “It was very sudden, came out of the blue and my family were shocked about it. I was 17 and overnight started acting very erratically, manically, not sleeping.

She added: “There were moments of real terror and other moments of real delusion, of grandeur, I felt I was Godlike, limitless, invincible. It was all very emotional and turbulent.

“It was then that the real fascination, bordering on obsession, with Alice happened.”

The hole she found herself in was one of creativity where words would come, many in rhyming form.

She said: “I felt a lot of empathy with Alice, her confused state, her reality changing, it’s as though the book was created for me. It was teaching me a lesson, all these characters mentioned.

“It started spurting a lot of creative ideas, rhyming phrases came out of it and other bits and pieces. From that I wrote Alice Took a Detour, it’s similar but it has an alternative ending.”

The author will talk about her psychosis at the event, how for her it is a form of escapism, much like the world of fiction, and therefore its link to creativity.

Her book includes stories such as The Thought Catcher, the tale of man’s struggle to manage the thoughts in his head, so he decides to write down each thought individually with surprising consequences.

Ms Georghiou took part in the Kilburn Literary Festival last October.

Next on her agenda is a stay in San Francisco where she is embarking on three month book tour of the literary city.

Admission to the event is free with tea and coffee included.