Mervyn Peake

In this highly illustrated new paperback edition, Peake's son Sebastian Peake has collaborated with Alison Eldred and G. Peter Winnington, author of an highly acclaimed biography of Mervyn Peake, to compile a stunning collection of illustrations, paintings, photographs, letters, notebook pages and other material much of which has never been published to produce a unique memoir of the artist s life and work. Contributors who discuss various aspects of his literary and visual output include the writers Michael Moorcock and Joanne Harris, Langdon Jones, editor of Titus Alone, artists John Howe and Chris Riddell, David Glass and John Constable, creators of the stage version of the Gormenghast trilogy, and Estelle Daniels, producer of the BBC dramatization. The book includes sections on Peake's upbringing as the son of a missionary in China, his development as an illustrator, artist and writer, marriage and fatherhood, his wartime experiences, creation of the Titus trilogy, Mr Pye and other literary works, and his tragic decline as illness overcame him, resulting in early death.

Mervyn Peake was the author of The Glassblowers, Gormenghast, The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, Shapes and Sounds, Titus Alone, and Titus Groan. He was awarded the W. H. Heinemann Foundation Prize by the Royal Society of Literature in 1950. G. Peter Winnington is the founder of Peake Studies, devoted to the work of Mervyn Peake and known as the leading authority on the writer and artist.