Edward Lear: The Gray Bird, from "Sixteen Drawings of Comic Birds"

"Bond's greatest (and biggest) play ... it is even more topical now and will become more so as man's inhumanity gains subtle sophistication."-The Times Edward Bond's version of Lear's story embraces myth and reality, war and politics, to reveal the violence endemic in all unjust societies. He exposes corrupted innocence ...more

Critics have had this to say about Bond: Plays 2: Lear: "Bond's greatest (and biggest) play ... it is even more topical now and will become more so as man's inhumanity gains subtle sophistication with the twenty-first century's approach."-The Times The Sea: "It blends wild farce with tragedy and ends ...more

One of Edward Lear's best know poems begins, "'How pleasant to know Mr. Lear!' / Who has written such volumes of stuff! / Some think him ill-tempered and queer, / But a few think him pleasant enough." As Vivien Noakes--author of the definitive biography of Lear--demonstrates in this remarkable collection ...more

Edward Lear (1812-1888) is best known for his humorous drawings and nonsense verses, but is now also widely appreciated as one of the finest draughtsmen of the 19th century. He began his career drawing birds and animals for John Gould. In 1837, he left England for the first of his ...more

There was an Old Man of Tobago Lived long on rice, gruel and sago But at last, to his bliss The physician said this To a roast leg of mutton you may go. This original limerick inspired Lear to create more than one hundred in his First Book of Nonsense. ...more

There is ‘luxury and inconvenience on the one hand, liberty, hard living and filth on the other’. So Edward Lear described the mysterious and often misunderstood country of Albania. Edward Lear’s travels through Albania and Macedonia in 1848 came about when an outbreak of cholera closed off all other routes ...more