WELCOME to the world of Edward Lear, the Highgate-born wordsmith who created the Quangle-Wangles, Pobbles, Jumblies and other bizarre characters.
Nicholas Parsons – comedian, presenter of Radio Four’s Just a Minute, actor and life-long Hampstead resident – has set out on a quest to revive his hero, who he believes we are in danger of forgetting.
His one-man tribute to Lear’s extraordinary life, How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear, has toured the world for several years.
This week the show premieres in London at Parsons’ local, the New End Theatre.
Edward Lear’s nonsense is a true absence of logic – it is the sound that is important. The only purpose of the rhyme is to entertain, and this is what drew Parsons to Lear.
“Lear loved the sound of words – that was what was important to him,” Parsons says. “There is a joy and jollity to Lear’s writing.”
Beneath the benevolence and humour that brought the unimaginable to life, lay loneliness and despair brought on from a lifelong battle with illness and what he saw as his parents’ rejection.
Lear was born in Holloway in 1812 the 20th child of 21. His father, Jeremiah, was a successful stockbroker and he lived in the family home on the corner of Holloway Road and Seven Sisters Road in a house called Bowman’s Lodge. In the early 19th century the area was part of Highgate village.
Little is known about his early years, but one biography records a childhood memory of twilight performances by clowns in Highgate, and of “crying half the night after all the small gaiety broke up”.
When Lear was four, Jeremiah lost all his money on the stock exchange and the family was forced out of Highgate.
Lear was taken in by his 36-year-old older sister Ann but to her dismay, he tried to etch out a career as an artist. He began earning a modest living as an ornithological draughtsman and used to paint animals at London Zoo, particularly the elephants. It was there that his talent was discovered and it was not long before he started selling his work.
His first published work in 1830, at the age of 19, was Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots.
But Lear would fall on hard times again.
“Since childhood, Lear had suffered from many debilitating illnesses like asthma and bronchitis, but worst of all epilepsy,” Parsons says. “Very little was known about epilepsy and people still associated the condition with evil spirits.”
Plagued by illness, still relatively poor and isolated, his eyesight – essential to his art – deteriorated to the point that he could no longer paint in fine detail. He turned to landscapes but these only achieved limited success. Then Lear found he had another talent. “He befriended the 13th Earl of Derby and was invited to entertain his children with stories,” Parsons says. “He discovered he could make adults and children laugh at the same time. Children are transfixed by the poetry and the magic of his world. Adults enjoy the charm and sophistication of the poems. You can look deeper at the wordplay.”
In 1837 Lear left for Italy, beginning half a century of wandering across southern Europe and the Middle East. He made his home on the Italian coast, and wrote the wonderful, romantic poems about sailing to exotic seascapes, such as The Duck and the Kangaroo, The Daddy Long-legs and the Fly and most famously The Owl and the Pussy Cat.
It was not until a few years before he died in 1888 that a short collection of his poems was published.
“They are devoted to him in America where there are scores of fan clubs and societies,” Parsons says. “Lear was an eccentric English poet who overcame great difficulty. We tend to take our great writers for granted in England. We idolise Shakespeare, who is internationally renowned, but many English poets are neglected. I guess that’s why I think my performance is important.
“It’s important to remember this exceptional man, an amazing genius who should be remembered.”

• How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear is at the New End Theatre until October 21. 0870 033 2733.