Happy birthday, Edward Lear

The god of nonsense, Edward Lear, is 200 years old this year. (Yes, the Inimitable can’t have the whole stage for himself, and must give way to another peculiarly English genius.) To mark the occasion, the Spectator’s Jubilee Double Issue (available from all good newsagents and doubtless a few bad ones too — alternatively, you can subscribe at new.spectator.co.uk/subscribe) carries a piece by Thomas Hodgkinson, a devotee of Lear who also shares the old man’s love of Corfu. I urge you to read the delightful piece in full, but here’s an excerpt to tickle your fancy:

‘The Owl and The Pussycat’ was my favourite childhood poem. And I must confess that it remains among my favourite poems, appealing irresistibly to sentimentality and escapism in equal measure. Who wouldn’t want to ‘dance by the light of the moon’, even when you dance as badly as I do? The reading in the video above is fine, but my mother’s rendition is best of all.