The ‘Limerick’ is a verse form of delightful simplicity: a funny poem (often ribald, irreverent, and sometimes vulgar). But perhaps the best limericks are not the most obviously irreverent or bawdy, but rather they are those which contain the largest amount of improbable incident and of subtle innuendo. Matthew Potter's important book explores the origin of the five-line verse with the familiar rhyming pattern of a-a-b-b-a and seeks to establish Limerick city's connection with one of the most popular and widespread poetic forms in the English language.