The youngest of thirteen children, Lear was raised by his eldest sister after his father was declared bankrupt. He began his career at London Zoo as one of the early bird illustrators. Owing to ill health, he lived in Italy for most of his adult life, apart from a 12-year-gap in Corfu during the Risorgimento, and travelled the entire country between 1837-1897. Indeed, he was often the very first Englishman to have visited some of the remoter areas, once being arrested in mistake for Lord Palmerston, the then Foreign Secretary, who had signed his passport and was no friend of the ruling Bourbons. Michael Montgomery's lifelong love of Italy was sparked many years ago by a chance sighting of Lear's lithographs of Italian mountain villages. Lear's Italy offers a unique expert insight both into the life and character of a truly remarkable writer and artist, who lived an extraordinary life, as well as into a critical period in the history of Italy, Edward Lear's adopted country.