Edward Lear
There have been a few Edward Lear related things floating around this weekend, it having been the 200th anniversary of his birth on Saturday. I can't claim to be a particular afficionado, though being prompted to re-read The Owl and the Pussycat, I thought it was rather lovely. I remember reading his books as a kid, and enjoying them, though finding them not up to the standard of other things, written much later. Inevitable, in retrospect, I suppose.
His birthday prompted a nice cryptic crossword in Saturday's Independent. The answers to some of the clues are nonce words coined by Lear, which make them a bit tricky. Runcible I remembered. Bong-Tree I deduced from the clue, and checked, but "[Lear]'s coinage in books European collected (6)" fitting -O-B-E took me some time.
The Owl and the Pussycat poem also reminded of this beautiful rendering, by Luna:
His birthday prompted a nice cryptic crossword in Saturday's Independent. The answers to some of the clues are nonce words coined by Lear, which make them a bit tricky. Runcible I remembered. Bong-Tree I deduced from the clue, and checked, but "[Lear]'s coinage in books European collected (6)" fitting -O-B-E took me some time.
The Owl and the Pussycat poem also reminded of this beautiful rendering, by Luna:
Click to view