‘Happy Birthday Edward Lear’ is an exhibition at the Poetry Café, London, celebrating 200 years of Edward Lear.

There is more than one defining Victorian writer celebrating his bicentenary this year. Edward Lear, who gave us ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ and ‘The Dong With a Luminous Nose’, developed the limerick into a staple of nonsense verse, and whose drawings are still instantly recognisable, was born 200 years ago on 12 May – a milestone that threatens to pass quietly, overshadowed by his contemporary Dickens.

But début art illustrator Andrew Baker and animator Linda Hughes (working together as Paper Galaxy) have stepped into the breach, mounting an exhibition at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café in Covent Garden to say, “Thank you, Mr Lear”. ‘Happy Birthday Edward Lear’ will feature work by an astonishing range of over 40 artists and illustrators, including fellow début art artists Dominic Trevett, Jane Webster and Morten Mørland along with Glen Baxter, Geoff Grandfield, Jonny Hannah, Simon Pemberton, and Vaughan Oliver, who created the artwork for all of the Pixies’ albums. The pictures, inspired by Edward Lear’s work, encompass all styles and contemporary interpretations.

The exhibition runs from Monday 7th May to Friday 8th June at the Poetry Society’s Poetry Café in Covent Garden.

For more information you can check out the blog for the event here.