She reveals details of Lear's immensely complicated personality, and the love of his life, with whom he was destined to find no happiness. Illustrated with the well-loved illustrations for which Lear became famous, this extraordinary biography offers a poignant insight into the life of an immensely talented and deliciously eccentric man for whom life was 'basically tragic and futile' and who felt that 'the only thing that matters is making little jokes.'