This week’s Guardian Book Podcast:

Poet and broadcaster Michael Rosen tells us why we should all get over Dickens and instead celebrate the bicentenary of nonsense writer Edward Lear. He explains why Lear is such a key figure in the history of poetry for children, charting his influence from the metaphysical whimsy of Norton Juster to the dark adventuring of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are. He also makes the case for The Owl and the Pussycat as one of the great English love poems for romantics of all ages.

Turtle Bunbury has a piece on Edward Lear and in particular his relationship with Ireland.

Two short articles that mention the Edward Lear exhibition opening today in Corfu:

• Mail Online;
• Telegraph.

If you are lucky enough to be in Paris, you will have another opportunity (the last one I’m afraid) to see the Mr. Lear group at the Théatre de la Reine Blanche: “A cette occasion, le Band vous promet un concert de pur Nonsense post-rock.”

Meanwhile, Slingsby, an Australian theatrical company, have announced a new opera to celebrate Edward Lear, the Father of Nonsense Literature: more info here, but consider that the date of the premiere has been moved to 26 April 2013:

Based on the life of Edward Lear, Ode To Nonsense tells the imagined last hour of Lear’s life.

Not enough? Then why not go and see An Evening of Neo-Absurdism: Phil Jacobs, the author, writes that “the material is very nonsensical… Any friend of Edward’s is a friend of ours!”

• Limerick Creator at 200 is an interview with Michael Rosen;
• Roger McGough’s Poetry Please of 21 May kicks off with a reading of Edward Lear’s “How Pleasant to Know Mr Lear” (6 days left to listen to the programme on iPlayer). McGough also announces a full programme devoted to Lear, send your requests.

More to read:

• Serious Nonsense by Sam Munsom in the Paris Review;
• Nonsense! by Peter Swaab on the Carcanet Blog;
• Dickens, Browning and Lear: what’s in a reputation? by Robert McCrum in The Guardian.

In this particular case, the theme looks back to Edward Lear’s and Lewis Carroll’s composite plants and animals, as well as to a long XIX century tradition of chimerae, and forward to Gustave Verbeek’s Terrors of the Tiny Tads and Loony Lyrics of Lulu, JP Benson’s Woozlebeasts, and many other istances.

Don’t miss the Oxford Dictionaries blog post: Higher-cynths, lower-cynths, and Seeze Pyders: why Lear’s ‘nonsense’ language is more than just fun

A screen capture, as it will disappear tomorrow:

It is mentioned by the Guardian, which also published a retrospective of its articles related to Lear (Edward Lear Master of the Nonsense Rhyme).

BBC Radio 4 broadcast the episode of Great Lives devoted to Lear by Nicholas Parson (listen now). On Wednesday (at 11.15, 21.15, and 4.15 on Thursday), you will be able to listen to Julia Blackburn’s Need for Nonsense (“The sad, contradictory tale of Edward Lear, famed Victorian artist and scribe of gleefully silly verse”).

Also:

• Michael Rosen in the Guardian;
• Telegraph;
• New York Times;
• Adelaide Now;
• iOS apps tie with Edward Lear Google Doodle;
• C|Net;
• Huffington Post;

But first, registration is now open for the September Edward Lear Conference at Jesus College, Oxford: here you can find the details and register.

Meanwhile, in Cambridge, the Institute of Continuing Education has a week-end course on Nonsense literature, 11-13 May.

Charles Lewsen will be giving an illustrated talk on Lear’s epilepsy in the Conference Centre of the British Library at 1 pm on 11 May.

There will be several events in London on Saturday, 12 May:

• At 11.30 am, a Westminster City Council Green Plaque will be unveiled at 15 Stratford Place, London W.1, the site of the house that was Edward Lear’s London base in the 1860s. Stratford Place is on the north side of Oxford Street, opposite the entrances to Bond Street underground station.
• 1 pm, a few short speeches about Lear and to acknowledge the late Vivien Noakes’ contribution to Lear studies at The Fine Art Society, 148 New Bond Street, London W.1 where, from 10 am to 5 pm works by Lear will be on display, as will books and exhibition catalogues. Download the invitation.
• At 3.30 pm there will be a ceremony in Poets Corner at Westminster Abbey, at which readers will include Roger McGough, President of the Poetry Society. Please go to the Great West Doors of the Abbey (by the bookshop) no later than 3.20 pm and inform the marshals that you are attending the Lear ceremony.

Several zoos around the country will be celebrating too, among them the Knowsley Safari Park (watch the video), ZSL London Zoo, Edinburgh, Newquay, and the Camperdown Wildlife Centre, Dundee.

Also, do not forget that the OED‘s Words of the Day around 12 May will be Lear-related, and that a further event will be held at the British Library on 13 May, 14.30-16.00: guests include Michael Rosen and Roger McGough.

If, like me, you cannot travel to any of these, here is some consolation in the form of two reviews of Houghton Library’s exhibition on Lear’s zoological work: Audubon Magazine, and Nature (restricted).

David Quantick writes on Lear’s influence on later nonsense in The Independent.

Vanessa Remington wrote a paper for the 2010 Victoria & Albert: Art & Love symposium, “Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their Relations with Artists,” which also mentions Edward Lear. It is available as a pdf file at The Royal Collection website.