This collection contains all of Lear s most celebrated verse and prose productions, from the 1846 volume of limericks, A Book of Nonsense, to his Nonsense Songs, which includes The Owl and the Pussy Cat , long considered one of the nation s favourite poems, and lesser-known pieces composed in the same waywardly imaginative vein.

Embodying his passion for nonsense, Lear s limericks, stories, poems, alphabets and miscellaneous pieces, each accompanied by one of the author s beguiling original illustrations, are fun, lyrical, lively and hilarious, and have enchanted children and adults since their first appearance in print.