Edward Lear: Moment to Moment review – paradise with a runcible spoon
The master of nonsense verse made his living as an artist – and these magical sketches from his travels are dreamlike delights
July 2022
Owl and Pussycat author Edward Lear’s no-nonsense talent for capturing the moment in drawings
An exhibition of sketches by the English author and illustrator reveals his artistic skills and life as ‘something of a sad clown’
January 2021
How Edward Lear's artistic genius led to the Owl and the Pussycat
A new paperback edition containing over a dozen unseen works shows the nonsense poet’s prowess as a natural history painter
September 2019
Play time
The Dong with a Luminous Nose review – a lovely load of nonsense
This imaginative adaptation delights in the sounds and sensations of Edward Lear’s peculiar poem about a lonely boy
May 2019
From anemoia to zagreb: how 'fictionaries' are liberating the word
Everyone from Flaubert to the Moomins has had fun with creating words – we should all challenge our lethologica and start doing the same, says Eley Williams
October 2017
Critical eye
Reviews roundup: Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense; The Sparsholt Affair; and Origin
From ging-e-jonga to the Quangle Wangle Quee: the animal world of Edward Lear
September 2017
Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense by Jenny Uglow review – owls, pussycats and wonder
Book of the day
Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense review – honey and heartbreak
March 2017
100 best nonfiction books of all time
The 100 best nonfiction books: No 58 – Nonsense Songs by Edward Lear (1871)
The Victorians loved wordplay, and few could rival this compendium of verbal delirium by Britain’s ‘laureate of nonsense’.
February 2017
Play time
Eric Idle's The Owl and the Pussycat review – Python primer for kids is a hoot
This musical adaptation of Idle’s take on Edward Lear’s much-loved poem is a hummable defence of the spirit nonsense
August 2016
Edward Lear’s shame about his epilepsy
'I willed him to wake up': epilepsy in art – and in life
July 2016
From the Guardian archive
Edward Lear's Nonsense Songs and Stories - archive
9 July 1888: The gift of writing precious nonsense as that which came from the pen of the late Edward Lear is denied to most authors
May 2015
Children's books
The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear - review
Rugbydog: 'I would recommend this for a day when you're feeling blue, as it would brighten up your life'
October 2014
The Owl and the Pussycat voted most popular childhood poem
Survey for National Poetry Day reveals Britain’s favourite childhood verse to inspire reading of poetry in everyday life, writes Rebecca Smithers
December 2013
Carol Rumens's poem of the week
Edward Lear's The New Vestments: the artistry of an extraordinary suit
Carol Rumens: A nonsensical poem about the defrocking of a proud old man provides narrative fun and psychological food for thought
September 2012
Art Weekly newsletter
Edward Lear's parrots and Thomas Schutte's humans – the week in art
Jonathan Jones: Oxford's Ashmolean celebrates the comic versifier's bicentenary with an exhibition of his nature art, while this century's Daumier deconstructs the human form – all in today's weekly art dispatch
Happy Birthday, Edward Lear: 200 Years of Nature and Nonsense – in pictures
Although best known for his nonsense poetry, Edward Lear (1812-88) also produced spectacular natural history illustrations and landscape paintings
It's not all nonsense: exhibition shows the artistic side of Lear
Surprising versatility is revealed as Ashmolean celebrates his bicentenary
