There was . . .

Sense and Nonsense

Back in October, I went to a talk by Jenny Uglow, which was based on her book Mr Lear, A Life of Art and Nonsense. It was a fascinating talk, after which I bought her book and she signed it. It is only now that I have got round to starting to read the book and I am really enjoying it. I have always had an interest in Lear’s work and used it in many contexts. The oldest granddaughter loved my copy of The Owl and the Pussy Cat - we read it hundreds of times when she was young and she knew every word.

However, I had no idea about Lear himself and am only now finding out that there was a lot more to him than 'nonsense'. He suffered from epilepsy and depression, he was a fine, but frustrated artist, he travelled endlessly and he left us a huge body of work to entertain and bring joy to every generation.

I love the way Uglow writes, I love the detail and the illustrations in the book. I like the way she relates his work to his life. And it is a ‘real’ book with a beautiful, embossed cover, printed on high quality paper . . . and it has a bookmark.

So I sit in the warm room getting on with knitting and then spending time reading this glorious book. Meanwhile, others would rather set off in the cold and go to Carlisle to sit in the freezing weather, watching some grown men chase a ball around a field for no apparent reason – now that makes no sense to me.

   
And by the way I have just found that Jenny Uglow has been booked to give what is probably the same talk in Keswick in March as part of 'Words by the Water 2018.' Anyone who is around at the time should have a look. Even if you are not interested in the book, her talk was one of the very best I have listened to in a long time and I can highly recommend it.