Edward Lear (1812-88) originally earned his living as a commercial artist. A skilled landscape painter and ornothological illustrator, he was art master to Queen Victoria for a time. His nonsense writing began as a sideline to amuse himself and hisfriend's children but soon made him a household name.
Vivien Noakes is the leading authority on Lear; editor of his Selected Letters (1988) and the definitive biography, she also curated the Lear exhibition at the Royal Academy in 1985.
