Jenny Uglow
Author of The Lunar Men: Five Friends whose Curiosity Changed the World
About the Author
Jenny Uglow is an editor at Chatto & Windus and lives in Canterbury, England
Image credit: Photograph: Eamonn McCabe
Works by Jenny Uglow
Associated Works
Curious, If True: Strange Tales by Mrs. Gaskell (1995) — Introduction, some editions — 110 copies, 4 reviews
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1947
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Cheltenham Ladies College
St Anne's College, Oxford - Occupations
- editor
critic
publisher
historian - Organizations
- University of Warwick
Chatto & Windus
Alliance of Literary Societies - Awards and honors
- Order of the British Empire (2008)
Royal Society of Literature (Fellow) - Relationships
- Uglow, Steve (husband)
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- England, UK
- Places of residence
- Canterbury, Kent, England, UK
Cumbria, England, UK
Dorset, England, UK - Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Reviews
After reading a disappointing novel, it was lovely to discover a wonderful non-fiction book. It's been a long while since I read such an engrossing, enjoyable biography. Edward Lear's nonsense rhymes helped me learn to read when I was tiny; I still remember the Pobble who had no toes. Until I was recommended this biography by several people, however, I didn't realise that Lear was also a very skilled landscape painter and zoological artist. Jenny Uglow draws upon Lear's extensive letters and show more diaries to tell the story of his life, richly illustrated by his drawings, paintings, and a few photographs. The whole book is a delightful visual feast. The inclusion of so many illustrations undoubtedly provides greater insight into Lear's life and work, as well as being simply lovely to look at.
Lear comes across vividly as a fascinating, endearing, eccentric artist and writer. He travelled extensively at a time when this was rare and struggled for decades to make a steady living from his art. He had many friends and was clearly an excellent correspondent. Uglow is careful not to speculate too much about his sexuality, while noting that his most romantic-seeming long-term relationship was with a man and that after much thought he decided not to marry a woman. Lear wasn't really part of the art movements of his time, although he was friends with several of the pre-raphaelites. His landscapes are beautiful, but his paintings of birds and nonsense sketches are his truly distinctive and striking work. I appreciated Uglow's thoughtful examination of why his nonsense works so well and still has great appeal a good 150 years after he wrote it:
Lear's playful way with words seems oddly ahead of its time, as he messed around with language in a way that reminds me of how its usage alters online:
This ability to create new words that have a wonderfully evident meaning from context is something Lear shares with [a:Mervyn Peake|22018|Mervyn Peake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651441428p2/22018.jpg]. [b:Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense|35259551|Mr. Lear A Life of Art and Nonsense|Jenny Uglow|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1520356210l/35259551._SX50_.jpg|55554792] gave me a fascinating insight into Lear's life and a new appreciation for his work. It's such an entertaining and compelling book that I read the whole thing in one evening, an experience I highly recommend. show less
Lear comes across vividly as a fascinating, endearing, eccentric artist and writer. He travelled extensively at a time when this was rare and struggled for decades to make a steady living from his art. He had many friends and was clearly an excellent correspondent. Uglow is careful not to speculate too much about his sexuality, while noting that his most romantic-seeming long-term relationship was with a man and that after much thought he decided not to marry a woman. Lear wasn't really part of the art movements of his time, although he was friends with several of the pre-raphaelites. His landscapes are beautiful, but his paintings of birds and nonsense sketches are his truly distinctive and striking work. I appreciated Uglow's thoughtful examination of why his nonsense works so well and still has great appeal a good 150 years after he wrote it:
In a deep way, hard to articulate, Lear's nonsense is comprehensible as both the foolery of childhood and the foolery of carnival, turning the world upside down. [...] The key quality of the nonsense rhymes is surprise: this is what makes us laugh. They ask us to believe in peculiar people, to accept strange happenings, to inhabit a world where butter is used to cure plague, a hatchet to scratch a flea.
Lear's playful way with words seems oddly ahead of its time, as he messed around with language in a way that reminds me of how its usage alters online:
Lear also liked to play with the function of letters in building words, and with the rules of grammar in making 'sense'. Even as a boy he grasped that if the common rules of word-making are followed - like adding 'ly' for an adverb - then a word will be accepted even if it's nonsense, as in his packing 'furibondiously'. Similarly, if a sentence sticks to accepted syntax, it will 'sound' like sense, whatever words are used, as in: 'It's bright and cold & icicular as possible, and elicits the ordibble murmurs of the cantankerous Corcyreans'.
He could break the rules successfully because he knew them so well. His language is alive, protean, ever evolving. Words mutate and evolve, finding new endings and appendages, like new limbs. He delighted in children's mishearings and battles with speech and spelling, so similar to his own nonsense slippages.
This ability to create new words that have a wonderfully evident meaning from context is something Lear shares with [a:Mervyn Peake|22018|Mervyn Peake|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1651441428p2/22018.jpg]. [b:Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense|35259551|Mr. Lear A Life of Art and Nonsense|Jenny Uglow|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1520356210l/35259551._SX50_.jpg|55554792] gave me a fascinating insight into Lear's life and a new appreciation for his work. It's such an entertaining and compelling book that I read the whole thing in one evening, an experience I highly recommend. show less
https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/the-lunar-men-the-friends-who-made-the-future-by...
A lovely in-depth look at the men behind the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment in the mid-19th century West Midlands of England, focussing especially on Erasmus Darwin as the key figure, but also looking at Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley, James Watt, Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Samuel Galton, and a number of others whose names I was less familiar with. They were all show more members of the Lunar Society, which met monthly in Birmingham from the 1760s to around the end of the century.
There is a lot of loving detail about their lives, with common threads including Methodism and other minority Protestant traditions (especially Quakers); pottery; lots of children (Darwin had fourteen with his two wives, and maybe more besides); investments; the abolition of slavery; and of course engineering. It could have been overwhelming, but it’s broken up with black-and-white illustrations and some lovely plates. I was particularly struck by Joseph Wright’s paintings of the orrery and the air pump.
I learned a lot from this; in particular I realised how well the author had managed to gain my sympathy when I found myself horrified by the 1791 Priestley Riots, where a right-wing mob targeted the local religious minorities in Birmingham, including especially the vulnerable and visible Joseph Priestley; the local authorities appear to have colluded in the outbreak of violence and then (as usual) blamed the victims for bringing it on themselves. Some things never change.
Anyway, this is a tremendously engaging book about a part of history that I should have known more about; and now I do. show less
A lovely in-depth look at the men behind the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment in the mid-19th century West Midlands of England, focussing especially on Erasmus Darwin as the key figure, but also looking at Matthew Boulton, Josiah Wedgwood, Joseph Priestley, James Watt, Richard Lovell Edgeworth and Samuel Galton, and a number of others whose names I was less familiar with. They were all show more members of the Lunar Society, which met monthly in Birmingham from the 1760s to around the end of the century.
There is a lot of loving detail about their lives, with common threads including Methodism and other minority Protestant traditions (especially Quakers); pottery; lots of children (Darwin had fourteen with his two wives, and maybe more besides); investments; the abolition of slavery; and of course engineering. It could have been overwhelming, but it’s broken up with black-and-white illustrations and some lovely plates. I was particularly struck by Joseph Wright’s paintings of the orrery and the air pump.
I learned a lot from this; in particular I realised how well the author had managed to gain my sympathy when I found myself horrified by the 1791 Priestley Riots, where a right-wing mob targeted the local religious minorities in Birmingham, including especially the vulnerable and visible Joseph Priestley; the local authorities appear to have colluded in the outbreak of violence and then (as usual) blamed the victims for bringing it on themselves. Some things never change.
Anyway, this is a tremendously engaging book about a part of history that I should have known more about; and now I do. show less
The French Revolution, the life of Napoleon and the Napoleonic Wars must be the most written about era of history. Ushering in the modern era, these are times we can relate to most easily and directly; plus, they are full of action, intrigue, politics, hour and engaging derring-do, which also helps. But, how to address this era with a new twist? Jenny Uglow has produced a book that provides that twist an opens up a whole new perspective on these times. This book focuses not on the politics, show more the military action or the broad historical narrative, but on the lives of ordinary British people through the Napoleonic Wars at all levels of society. Further, she does this through the words - letters, diaries, journals, pamphlets, books - of these individuals. What we get is a remarkable insight into how these people lived their lives, how they reacted to events, how they heard about these events and how they were affected by Britain's involvement in a conflict lasting 22 years. We hear how people benefited from the War, suffered losses, lost loved ones, changed with the times (as people always eventually do), laughed and loved.
The research here is extensive and the selection of texts is just about perfect. show less
The research here is extensive and the selection of texts is just about perfect. show less
Jenny Uglow's new biography Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is one of the best examples of the genre I've read this year. Uglow has captured the spirit and nature of Bewick remarkably well, and the text is nicely complemented by the many delightful examples of Bewick's woodcuts scattered throughout.
Beyond the straight retelling of Bewick's life and business (interesting though that is), Uglow provides a well-researched look at the history of book show more illustration in England and the gradual development of the various engraving processes which Bewick largely scorned in favor of the more traditional woodcut (a form of which he must be counted one of the great masters). The book charts his rise from "wild child" of the English north to acclaimed illustrator, in high demand by the top publishers and authors of England.
A short section in which Uglow discusses Bewick's impact on some other British literary figures (Wordsworth, the Brontës, &c.) was particularly fascinating, as was her recounting of a meeting between Bewick and John James Audubon (two great artists whose styles were infintely different, but each marvelous in its own way).
Importantly, Uglow also takes us beyond Bewick as artist and naturalist, giving her reader a view of the man which most of his contemporaries might not have had: an unorthodox deist in religion, Bewick was also fairly radical in his politics, joining many of his Newcastle neighbors in actively supporting pacificist principles and political candidates during the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. For people like Bewick, best known for a single occupation, I think it's easy (at least it is for me) to see them in a sort of vacuum, just doing their thing; Uglow's book does a good job of adding those additional dimensions that often go unconsidered.
I'll add my obligatory comment about the unsatisfactory citation style (references go unnoted in the text), but that's the only minor fault with this excellent biography.
http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2007/08/book-review-natures-engraver.html show less
Beyond the straight retelling of Bewick's life and business (interesting though that is), Uglow provides a well-researched look at the history of book show more illustration in England and the gradual development of the various engraving processes which Bewick largely scorned in favor of the more traditional woodcut (a form of which he must be counted one of the great masters). The book charts his rise from "wild child" of the English north to acclaimed illustrator, in high demand by the top publishers and authors of England.
A short section in which Uglow discusses Bewick's impact on some other British literary figures (Wordsworth, the Brontës, &c.) was particularly fascinating, as was her recounting of a meeting between Bewick and John James Audubon (two great artists whose styles were infintely different, but each marvelous in its own way).
Importantly, Uglow also takes us beyond Bewick as artist and naturalist, giving her reader a view of the man which most of his contemporaries might not have had: an unorthodox deist in religion, Bewick was also fairly radical in his politics, joining many of his Newcastle neighbors in actively supporting pacificist principles and political candidates during the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. For people like Bewick, best known for a single occupation, I think it's easy (at least it is for me) to see them in a sort of vacuum, just doing their thing; Uglow's book does a good job of adding those additional dimensions that often go unconsidered.
I'll add my obligatory comment about the unsatisfactory citation style (references go unnoted in the text), but that's the only minor fault with this excellent biography.
http://philobiblos.blogspot.com/2007/08/book-review-natures-engraver.html show less
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