Charles Lewsen kindly sent me a number of photographs of the celebrations for Edward Lear’s bicentenay in London on 12 May and I have created a Facebook album you might like to see.
This week’s Guardian Book Podcast:
Poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen tells us why we should all get over Dickens and instead celebrate the bicentenary of nonsense writer Edward Lear. He explains why Lear is such a key figure in the history of poetry for children, charting his influence from the metaphysical whimsy of Norton Juster to the dark adventuring of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. He also makes the case for The Owl and the Pussycat as one of the great English love poems for romantics of all ages.
Turtle Bunbury has a piece on Edward Lear and in particular his relationship with Ireland.
Two short articles that mention the Edward Lear exhibition opening today in Corfu:
If you are lucky enough to be in Paris, you will have another opportunity (the last one I’m afraid) to see the Mr. Lear group at the Théatre de la Reine Blanche: “A cette occasion, le Band vous promet un concert de pur Nonsense post-rock.”
Meanwhile, Slingsby, an Australian theatrical company, have announced a new opera to celebrate Edward Lear, the Father of Nonsense Literature: more info here, but consider that the date of the premiere has been moved to 26 April 2013:
Based on the life of Edward Lear, Ode To Nonsense tells the imagined last hour of Lear’s life.
Not enough? Then why not go and see An Evening of Neo-Absurdism: Phil Jacobs, the author, writes that “the material is very nonsensical… Any friend of Edward’s is a friend of ours!”
A Blog of Bosh 