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For our Verb on memory, Jenny Uglow explores one of the most memorisable poets in English Literature, the 19th century artist and ‘limerick’ genius, Edward Lear. Jenny explores the compact form of the limerick, and considers the impact of their last lines, their wilful eccentricities, and the way they relate to their accompanying images Not only did Lear write extremely memorable poems ( including one of the most popular in our culture, ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’) he was also preoccupied with remembering his own past. Jenny discusses how Lear poured the pain and beauty of his own memories into the strange world of his poems, making them funny without losing any of their power. Jenny’s biography ‘Mr Lear’ is published by Faber.

How does an actor remember their lines? The actor Julian Glover joins us fresh from playing Julius Ceasar on stage. He’s been celebrated in recent years for his performances as Grand Maister Pycelle - ‘the most mendacious member of the King’s Council’ in the hit television series ‘Game of Thrones’, as the voice of Aragog (the spider in ‘Harry Potter’ ) and has played heroes and villains in James Bond films, Star Wars, Doctor Who, and in many other landmark productions. Julian explains how he learns trickiest part of scripts (like lists) and performs extracts of the Old English poem ‘Beowulf’ from memory. Julian delights his fellow Verb guests with readings of Edward Lear’s limericks, and an unmissable rendition of ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’. 

How does memory aide improvisational comedy? Amy explains how personal memories inform their sketches, whilst Rachel compares the last line of Edward Lear’s limericks to the ‘call-back’ in stand-up comedy. They rise to the challenge set by Ian McMillan – to create an improvisation using as many words from Edward Lear’s ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’ as they can, in the least romantic setting we could think of, with a runcible spoon.

Rachel and Amy are on tour as part of 

Martin Bommas is a reader in Egyptology at the University of Birmingham. Martin Bommas explains how beating the chest rhythmically helped the Ancient Egyptians remember their lines, and discusses the role that memory played in their death rituals (and the dire consequences of forgetting even a single word) . We discover that the Ancient Egyptians were less focused on ‘fun’ and more interested in ‘death’.