Ever wonder what became of the owl and the pussycat from Edward Lear’s famous 1870 poem? Last seen, they “danced by the light of the moon†after having been married by a turkey.
Julia Donaldson, who recently finished a two-year term as Britain’s Children’s Laureate, has just published a sequel, “The Further Adventures of the Owl and the Pussycat,†illustrated by Charlotte Voake.
Ms. Donaldson told the British newspaper Metro that she was “wooed†by a publisher to continue the story, and that the idea “instantly appealed to me. I have always loved Edward Lear and welcomed the challenge to compose a new adventure using the same meter and nonsense language. The whole poem isn’t nonsense: there can be an underlying emotional sense to it. The ‘nonsense’ comes in the language.†She wrote in The Telegraph: “I like to think of it as a kind of thank-you to Lear for giving me so much childhood pleasure.â€
“The Owl and the Pussycat†has inspired many other artists, including Beatrix Potter, whose book “The Tale of Little Pig Robinson,†published in 1930, is a prequel about the pig who makes a brief appearance in Lear’s tale.
