Saturday 2 December 2017


Our Book of the Week this week is Mr Lear: A life of art and nonsense by Jenny Uglow         
A man of deep ambivalences, contradictions and vulnerabilities, Edward Lear was unable to act on his deepest feelings but produced some of the oddest poetry of his time, as well as a body of art both serious and comic. Jenny Uglow, who could almost be said to specialise in biographies of odd characters who both exemplify and stand apart from their times, is Lear's perfect biographer, forensic yet sensitive to the most hidden corners of his psyche, his playfulness and his melancholy. 
"Jenny Uglow has written a great life about an artist with half a life, a biography that might break your heart." - Robert McCrum, Guardian

>> David Attenborough examines some of Lear's ornithological art

>> Some limericks written and illustrated by Lear.

>> The fine line between joy and melancholy

>> An Exile in Paradise

>> Lear's works have inspired many other illustrators

>> Uglow has written a string of exemplary biographies and histories


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