The Book of Nonsense

"I don’t remember much about my grandfather except that he was an old man with a beard and he used to sit me on his lap. He had a great tweed suit and smoked a pipe, so his beard smelt of tobacco. I remember putting my fingers in his beard and he would read me these wonderful rhymes, and there were those extraordinary drawings as well which I can see as I am speaking to you. They were wonderful caricatures, someone with a long nose, or someone with a beard or someone with very long legs. But most of all I just loved to hear the jingles. I think it was the music in words that attracted me to words. So the beginning of my enjoyment and love of poetry started with Edward Lear."