Editing Mervyn Peake

{{Short description|British author and illustrator (1911–1968)}}
{{Use British English|date=July 2012}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name               = Mervyn Peake
| image              = Mervyn Peake.jpg
| caption            = Peake in the 1930s
| birth_name         = Mervyn Laurence Peake
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1911|7|9|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Guling, Jiangxi|Kuling]], [[Jiujiang]], [[Qing dynasty|Qing China]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1968|11|17|1911|7|9|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Burcot, Oxfordshire]], England
| children           = 3
| occupation         = Writer, artist, poet, illustrator
| education          = [[Eltham College]]; [[Croydon College|Croydon School of Art]]; [[Royal Academy Schools]]
| notable_works      = ''[[Gormenghast (series)|Gormenghast]]'' series
| spouse             = [[Maeve Gilmore]]
| relatives          = [[Jack Peñate]] (grandson)<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.mervynpeake.org/biography.html |title=Mervyn Peake biography – 1911–1968 |work=mervynpeake.org |year=2013 |access-date=29 August 2015}}</ref>
| signature          = Mervyn Peake signature.svg
}}
'''Mervyn Laurence Peake''' (9 July 1911&nbsp;– 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the ''[[Gormenghast (series)|Gormenghast]]'' books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, the completion of which was prevented by his death. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary [[J. R. R. Tolkien]], but Peake's surreal fiction was influenced by his early love for [[Charles Dickens]] and [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] rather than Tolkien's studies of [[mythology]] and [[philology]].

Peake also wrote poetry and [[literary nonsense]] in verse form, short stories for adults and children (''[[Letters from a Lost Uncle]]'', 1948), stage and radio plays, and ''[[Mr Pye]]'' (1953), a relatively tightly structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.

Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he lived in London, and he was commissioned to produce portraits of well-known people. For a short time at the end of World War II he was commissioned by various newspapers to depict war scenes. A collection of his drawings is still in the possession of his family. Although he gained little popular success in his lifetime, his work was highly respected by his peers, and his friends included [[C. S. Lewis]], [[Dylan Thomas]] and [[Graham Greene]]. His works are now included in the collections of the [[National Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery]], the [[Imperial War Museum]] and [[The National Archives (United Kingdom)|The National Archives]].

In 2008, ''[[The Times]]'' named Peake among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/the-50-greatest-british-writers-since-1945-ws3g69xrf90 |title=The 50 greatest British writers since 1945|date=5 January 2008|newspaper=[[The Times]]|access-date= 2 August 2022}}</ref>

==Early life==
Mervyn Peake was born of British parents in [[Guling, Jiangxi|Kuling]] located on top of [[Mountain Lu|Mount Lu]] in [[Jiujiang]] in 1911, only three months before the revolution and the founding of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]]. His father, [[Ernest Cromwell Peake]], was a [[Medical missions in China|medical missionary]] doctor with the [[London Missionary Society]] of the [[Congregational church|Congregationalist tradition]], and his mother, Amanda Elizabeth Powell, had come to China as a missionary assistant. Ernest and Amanda met in July 1903 at [[Kuling, Jiujiang|Kuling]] (from the English word "cooling"), a summer European missionary resort in [[Mount Lu]] about the Yangtze River in [[Jiujiang]]. They got married in Hong Kong in December of that same year.<ref name="Mervyn">{{cite book|last1=Winnington|first1=Peter G.|title=Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake|date=2000|publisher=Peter Owen|location=London|isbn=0720613418}}</ref>

The Peakes were given leave to visit England just before [[World War I]] in 1914 and returned to China in 1916. Mervyn Peake attended [[Tianjin|Tientsin]] Grammar School until the family left for England in December 1922 via the [[Trans-Siberian Railway]]. He would later write a novella about this time, titled ''The White Chief of the Umzimbooboo Kaffirs''. Peake never returned to China but it has been noted that Chinese influences can be detected in his works, not least in the castle of Gormenghast itself, which in some respects echoes his birthplace [[Kuling, Jiujiang|Kuling]], the ancient walled city of [[Beijing]], as well as the enclosed compound where he grew up in [[Tianjin]].{{citation-needed|date=August 2024}} It is also likely that his early exposure to the contrasts between the lives of the Europeans and of the Chinese, and between the poor and the wealthy in China, also exerted an influence on the Gormenghast books.{{citation-needed|date=August 2024}}

His education continued at [[Eltham College]], [[Mottingham]] (1923–29), where his talents were encouraged by his English teacher, Eric Drake. Peake completed his formal education at [[Croydon College|Croydon School of Art]] in the autumn of 1929, and then from December 1929 to 1933 at the [[Royal Academy Schools]], where he first painted in oils. By this time he had written his first long poem, ''A Touch o' the Ash''. In 1931, he had a painting accepted for display by the [[Royal Academy]] and exhibited his work with the so-called "[[Soho]] Group".

==Career==
His early career in the 1930s was as a painter in London, although he lived on the Channel Island of [[Sark]] for a time. He first moved to Sark in 1932 where his former teacher Eric Drake was setting up an artists' colony.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Foote |first1=Stephen |title=Mervyn Peake: Son of Sark |date=2019 |publisher=Blue Ormer |location=Guernsey |isbn=9781999891381 |url=https://blueormer.gg/product/mervyn-peake-son-of-sark/}}</ref> In 1934, Peake exhibited with the Sark artists both in the Sark Gallery built by Drake and at the Cooling Galleries in London, and in 1935 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Leger Galleries in London.

In 1936, he returned to London and was commissioned to design the sets and costumes for ''[[Pictures from the Insects' Life|The Insect Play]]'', and his work was acclaimed in ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]''. He also began teaching [[life drawing]] at [[Westminster School of Art]] where he met the painter [[Maeve Gilmore]], whom he married in 1937. They had three children: Sebastian (1940–2012), Fabian (born 1942), and Clare (born 1949).

Peake had a very successful exhibition of paintings at the Calmann Gallery in London in 1938 and his first book, the self-illustrated children's pirate romance ''[[Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor]]'' (based on a story he had written around 1936), was first published in 1939 by ''[[Country Life (magazine)|Country Life]]''. In December 1939, he was commissioned by [[Chatto & Windus]] to illustrate a children's book, ''Ride a Cock Horse and Other Nursery Rhymes'', published for the Christmas market in 1940.

===Enlistment===
[[File:Glass-blowers 'Gathering' from the Furnace. (1943) (Art.IWM ART LD 2851).jpg|thumb|''Glass-blowers "Gathering" from the Furnace'' (1943) (Art.IWM ART LD 2851)]]
At the outbreak of [[World War II]], he applied to become a [[war artist]], for he was keen to put his skills at the service of his country. He imagined ''An Exhibition by the Artist, Adolf Hitler'', in which horrific images of war with ironic titles were offered as "artworks" by the Nazi leader.<ref name=EJWmp>{{cite web |first=Eleanor Johnson |last=Ward|url=http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/art-in-the-archives/?dm_i=3PUB,9WT9,36LWJC,100ZD,1 |title=Art in the Archives / The horrors of war |date=8 September 2017|access-date=15 September 2017|work=The National Archives}}</ref> Although the drawings were bought by the British [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]], Peake's application was turned down and he was [[conscription|conscripted]] into the Army, where he served first with the [[Royal Artillery]], then with the [[Royal Engineers]]. He began writing ''Titus Groan'' at this time.

In April 1942, after his requests for commissions as a war artist&nbsp;– or even leave to depict war damage in London&nbsp;– had been consistently refused, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to Southport Hospital. That autumn he was taken on as a graphic artist by the Ministry of Information for a period of six months to work on propaganda illustrations. The next spring he was invalided out of the Army. In 1943 he was commissioned by the [[War Artists' Advisory Committee]], WAAC, to paint [[glassblowing|glassblowers]] at the [[Chance Brothers]] factory in [[Smethwick]] where cathode ray tubes for early radar sets were being produced.<ref name="Liss2016">{{cite book|first=Sacha |last=Llewellyn |author2= Paul Liss|publisher=Liss Llewellyn Fine Art|year=2016|title=WWII War Pictures by British Artists|isbn=978-0-9930884-2-1}}</ref> Peake was next given a full-time, three-month WAAC contract to depict various factory subjects and was also asked to submit a large painting showing RAF pilots being debriefed.<ref name="Foss">{{cite book|first=Brain |last=Foss|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2007|title=War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939–1945 |isbn=978-0-300-10890-3}}</ref><ref name=IWMWmp>{{cite web |author=Imperial War Museum|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050001231|title=War artists archive Mervyn Peake |access-date=11 August 2014|work=[[Imperial War Museum]]}}</ref> Some of these paintings are on permanent display in Manchester Art Gallery whilst other examples are in the [[Imperial War Museum]] collection.<ref name="WW2Art">{{cite book|publisher=Imperial War Museum|year=2007|title=Art from the Second World War|isbn=978-1-904897-66-8}}</ref>

===Illustration and writing===
The five years between 1943 and 1948 were some of the most productive of his career. He finished ''Titus Groan'' and ''Gormenghast'' and completed some of his most acclaimed illustrations for books by other authors, including [[Lewis Carroll]]'s ''[[The Hunting of the Snark]]'' (for which he was reportedly paid only £5) and ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'', [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]]'s ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'', the [[Brothers Grimm]]'s ''Household Tales'', ''All This and Bevin Too'' by [[Quentin Crisp]] and [[Robert Louis Stevenson]]'s ''[[Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'', as well as producing many original poems, drawings, and paintings.

Peake designed the logo for [[Pan Books]]. The publishers offered him either a flat fee of £10 or a royalty of one [[Farthing (British coin)|farthing]] per book. On the advice of [[Graham Greene]], who told him that paperback books were a passing fad that would not last, Peake opted for the £10.<ref>As recounted by Clare Peake on the BBC Radio 4 programme ''[[Midweek (BBC Radio 4)|Midweek]]'', [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011zn5p#synopsis 22 June 2011.]</ref>

A book of nonsense poems, ''Rhymes Without Reason'', was published in 1944 and was described by [[John Betjeman]] as "outstanding". Shortly after the war ended in 1945, [[Edgar Ainsworth (artist)|Edgar Ainsworth]], the art editor of ''[[Picture Post]]'', commissioned Peake to visit France and Germany for the magazine.<ref name=Colegrave>{{cite web|author=Sarah Colegrave Fine Art|url=http://www.sarahcolegrave.co.uk/paintings/d/gordale-scar/41434|title=Edgar Ainsworth (1905–1975)|access-date=2 July 2016|work=Sarah Colegrave Fine Art|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201044438/http://www.sarahcolegrave.co.uk/paintings/d/gordale-scar/41434|archive-date=1 December 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref> With writer [[Tom Pocock]], Peake was among the first British civilians to witness the horrors of the [[Nazism|Nazi]] [[concentration camp]] at [[Belsen]], where the remaining prisoners, too sick to be moved, were dying before his very eyes. He made several drawings, but not surprisingly he found the experience profoundly harrowing, and expressed in deeply felt poems the ambiguity of turning their suffering into art.<ref name="Beeb">{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-14015945 |title=Gormenghast's Mervyn Peake 'influenced by death camp' |date=5 July 2011|access-date=13 August 2014|publisher=BBC News}}</ref>

In 1946, the family moved to [[Sark]], where Peake continued to write and illustrate, and Maeve painted.  ''[[Gormenghast (novel)|Gormenghast]]'' was published in 1950,<ref>[[Robert Irwin (writer)|Robert Irwin]], "Peake, Mervyn (Laurence)", ''St. James Guide To Fantasy Writers'', ed. [[David Pringle]], London, St. James Press, 1996, {{ISBN|1-55862-205-5}}, pp. 469–70.</ref><ref>[[John Clute]], "The Titus Groan Trilogy", in Frank N. Magill (ed.), ''Survey of Modern Fantasy Literature'', Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, Inc., 1983 (pp. 1947–1953). {{ISBN|0-89356-450-8}}.</ref> and the family moved back to England, settling in [[Smarden]], Kent. Peake taught part-time at the [[Central School of Art]], began his comic novel ''Mr Pye'', and renewed his interest in theatre. His father died that year and left his house in Hillside Gardens in [[Wallington, London|Wallington]], Surrey to Peake.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WMNQDM_Mervyn_Peake_Drayton_Gardens_London_UK|title=Mervyn Peake – Drayton Gardens, London, UK – Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com|website=waymarking.com|access-date=4 August 2019}}</ref> ''[[Mr Pye]]'' was published in 1953, and he later adapted it as a radio play. The [[BBC]] broadcast other plays of his in 1954 and 1956.

==Later life==
In 1956, Mervyn and Maeve visited Spain, financed by a friend who hoped that Peake's health, which was already declining, would be improved by the holiday. That year his novella ''[[Boy in Darkness]]'' was published beside stories by [[William Golding]] and [[John Wyndham (writer)|John Wyndham]] in a volume called ''Sometime, Never''. On 18 December the [[BBC]] broadcast his radio play ''The Eye of the Beholder'' (later revised as ''The Voice of One''), in which an avant-garde artist is commissioned to paint a church mural. Peake placed much hope in his play ''The Wit to Woo'', which was finally staged in London's West End in 1957, but it was a critical and commercial failure.<ref name="Stevens">{{cite book
| last= Stevens
| first= Christopher
| title= Born Brilliant: The Life of Kenneth Williams
| publisher= John Murray
| year= 2010
| isbn = 978-1-84854-195-5
| page=367
}}</ref> This affected him greatly&nbsp;– his health degenerated rapidly and he was again admitted to hospital with a nervous breakdown.
During this period he was published primarily in [[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]] by [[Michael Moorcock]], a consistent supporter since the mid-1950s.
===Declining health===
He was showing unmistakable early symptoms of dementia, for which he was given [[electroconvulsive therapy]], to little avail. Over the next few years he gradually lost the ability to draw steadily and quickly, although he still managed to produce some drawings with the help of his wife. Among his last completed works were the illustrations for [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]]'s ''[[Les Cent Contes drolatiques|Droll Stories]]'' (1961) and for his own poem ''The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb'' (1962), which he had written some 15 years earlier.

''[[Titus Alone]]'' was published in 1959 and was revised in 1970 by Langdon Jones, an editor of ''[[New Worlds (magazine)|New Worlds]]'', to remove apparent inconsistencies introduced by the publisher's careless editing. Jones, also a composer, set ''The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb'' to music.  A 1995 edition of all three completed Gormenghast novels includes a very short fragment of the beginning of what would have been the fourth Gormenghast novel, ''[[Titus Awakes]]'', as well as a listing of events and themes he wanted to address in that and later Gormenghast novels.

==Death==
Throughout the 1960s, Peake's health declined into physical and mental incapacitation, and he died on 17 November 1968 at a care home run by his brother-in-law, at [[Burcot, Oxfordshire|Burcot]], near [[Oxford]]. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in the village of [[Burpham]], West Sussex.

A 2003 study published in ''[[JAMA Neurology]]'' assessed that Peake's death was the result of [[dementia with Lewy bodies]] (DLB).<ref name="dlb">{{cite journal |title=Dementia With Lewy Bodies and the Neurobehavioral Decline of Mervyn Peake |first=Demetrios J. |last=Sahlas |journal=Arch. Neurol. |year=2003 |volume=60 |issue=6 |doi=10.1001/archneur.60.6.889 |url=http://archneur.jamanetwork.com/Mobile/article.aspx?articleid=784261 |pages=889–92 |pmid=12810496|doi-access=free |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

His work, especially the ''Gormenghast'' series, became much better known and more widely appreciated after his death. They have since been translated into more than two dozen languages.

==Publications==
Six volumes of Peake's verse were published during his lifetime; ''Shapes & Sounds'' (1941), ''Rhymes without Reason'' (1944), ''The Glassblowers'' (1950), ''[[The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb]]'' (1962), ''Poems & Drawings'' (1965), and ''A Reverie of Bone'' (1967). After his death came ''Selected Poems'' (1972), followed by ''Peake's Progress'' in 1979&nbsp;– though the Penguin edition of 1982, with many corrections, including a whole stanza inadvertently omitted from the hardback edition. ''The Collected Poems of Mervyn Peake'' was published by [[Carcanet Press]] in June 2008. Other collections include ''The Drawings of Mervyn Peake'' (1974), ''Writings and Drawings'' (1974), and ''Mervyn Peake: the man and his art'' (2006). A limited edition of the collected works, issued to celebrate Peake's centenary year, was published by [[Queen Anne Press]].

==Archive==
In 2010 an archive consisting of 28 containers of material, which included correspondence between Peake and [[Laurie Lee]], [[Walter de la Mare]] and [[C. S. Lewis]], plus 39 Gormenghast notebooks and original drawings for both ''Alice Through the Looking Glass'' and ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'', was acquired by the [[British Library]].<ref name="Thorpe">{{cite web |first=Vanessa|last=Thorpe|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/04/alice-wonderland-illustrations-mervyn-peake |title=How the devastation caused by war came to inspire an artist's dark images of Alice|date=4 April 2010|access-date=12 August 2014|work=[[The Observer]] }}</ref> Access to the Archive is available through the British Library website.<ref>[http://searcharchives.bl.uk/IAMS_VU2:IAMS032-000897929 Mervyn Peake Archive], archives and manuscripts catalogue, the British Library. Retrieved 13 May 2020</ref> In July 2020, the British Library acquired from the Peake Estate a visual archive consisting of 300 of Peake's original illustrations for children's stories, ''Gormenghast'', and other works including ''Treasure Island''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Visual Archive of Mervyn Peake acquired for the nation, including original illustrations, preliminary drawings and unpublished early works|url=https://www.bl.uk/press-releases/2020/july/visual-archive-of-mervyn-peake-acquired-for-the-nation}}</ref>

== Commemoration ==
Peake's three children presented on [[BBC Radio Four]] in 2018 a half-hour memoir of their father's life, emphasizing the importance of the island of [[Sark]].<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b01292v3 "A Hundred Years of Mervyn Peake"], ''Sounds'', BBC, 7 July 2011.</ref>

The first blue plaque on Sark was unveiled in Peake's honour at the Gallery Stores in the Avenue on 30 August 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/live/world-europe-jersey-49170053|title=Channel Islands Live: Breaking news and local stories|date=8 August 2019 |publisher=BBC News|language=en-GB|access-date=8 August 2019}}</ref>

==Dramatic adaptations of Peake's work==
In 1983, the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]] broadcast eight hour-long episodes for radio dramatising the complete Gormenghast Trilogy. This was the first to include the third book ''[[Titus Alone]]''.

In 1984, [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast two 90-minute plays based on ''[[Titus Groan]]'' and ''[[Gormenghast (novel)|Gormenghast]]'', adapted by [[Brian Sibley]] and starring [[Sting (musician)|Sting]] as [[Steerpike]] and [[Freddie Jones]] as the Artist (narrator). A slightly abridged compilation of the two, running to 160 minutes, and entitled ''Titus Groan of Gormenghast'', was broadcast on Christmas Day, 1992. [[BBC 7]] repeated the original versions on 21 and 28 September 2003.

In 1986, ''Mr Pye'' was adapted as a four-part [[Channel 4]] miniseries starring [[Derek Jacobi]].

In 2000, the [[BBC]] and [[WGBH-TV|WGBH Boston]] co-produced a lavish miniseries, titled ''[[Gormenghast (TV serial)|Gormenghast]]'', based on the first two books of the series. It starred [[Jonathan Rhys-Meyers]] as Steerpike, [[Neve McIntosh]] as Fuchsia, [[June Brown]] as Nannie Slagg, [[Ian Richardson]] as Lord Groan, [[Christopher Lee]] as Flay, [[Richard Griffiths]] as Swelter, [[Warren Mitchell]] as Barquentine, [[Celia Imrie]] as Countess Gertrude, [[Lynsey Baxter]] and [[Zoë Wanamaker]] as the twins Cora and Clarice, and [[John Sessions]] as Dr Prunesquallor. The supporting cast included [[Olga Sosnovska]], [[Stephen Fry]] and [[Eric Sykes]], and the series is also notable as the last screen performance by comedy legend [[Spike Milligan]] (as the Headmaster).

A 30-minute TV short film entitled ''A Boy in Darkness'' (also made in 2000 and adapted from Peake's novella) was the first production from the BBC Drama Lab. It was set in a "virtual" computer-generated world created by young computer game designers, and starred [[Jack Ryder (actor)|Jack Ryder]] (from ''[[EastEnders]]'') as Titus, with [[Terry Jones]] (''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'') narrating.

[[Irmin Schmidt]], founder of seminal German [[Krautrock]] group [[Can (band)|Can]], wrote an opera called ''Gormenghast'', based on the novels; it was first performed in [[Wuppertal Opera|Wuppertal]], Germany, in November 1998. A number of early songs by New Zealand rock group [[Split Enz]] were inspired by Peake's work. The song "[[The Drowning Man]]", by British band [[The Cure]], is inspired by events in ''Gormenghast'', and the song "Lady Fuchsia" by another British band, [[Strawbs]], is also based on events in the novels.

Peake's play ''[[The Cave (play)|The Cave]]'', which dates from the mid-1950s, was given a first public reading at the [[Blue Elephant Theatre]] in [[Camberwell]] (London) in 2009, and had its world premiere in the same theatre, directed by Aaron Paterson, on 19 October 2010.

In 2011, Brian Sibley adapted the story again, this time as six one-hour episodes broadcast on BBC Radio 4 as the [[Classic Serial]] starting on 10 July 2011. The serial was titled ''The History of Titus Groan'' and adapted all three novels written by Mervyn Peake and the recently discovered concluding volume, ''[[Titus Awakes]]'', completed by his widow, [[Maeve Gilmore]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012f7gz |title=Classic Serial: The History of Titus Groan |publisher=BBC Radio 4|access-date=12 June 2012}}</ref> It starred [[Luke Treadaway]] as Titus, [[David Warner (actor)|David Warner]] as the Artist and [[Carl Prekopp]] as Steerpike. It also starred [[Paul Rhys]], [[Miranda Richardson]], [[James Fleet]], [[Tamsin Greig]], [[Fenella Woolgar]], [[Adrian Scarborough]] and [[Mark Benton]] among others.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b012f7ms |title=Radio 4 Programmes&nbsp;– Classic Serial, The History of Titus Groan, Titus Arrives |publisher=BBC |access-date=12 June 2012}}</ref>

[[Sting (musician)|Sting]] owned the film rights to the ''Gormenghast'' novels for a brief period in the 1980s, during which he discussed the possibility of adapting the novels into a series of [[concept album]]s, but he abandoned the idea after declaring the Radio 4 audio drama as ideal. As of 2015, author [[Neil Gaiman]] was in talks to adapt the novels for the big screen.<ref>{{cite news|last=Flood |first=Alison |newspaper=The Guardian |title=Neil Gaiman in talks to adapt Gormenghast for cinema |date=14 December 2015 |access-date=21 December 2016 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/14/neil-gaiman-adapt-gormenghast-cinema-mervyn-peake}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
Authors who have cited Peake as influences on their work include: [[Neil Gaiman]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Gaiman |first=Neil |date=10 July 2022 |title=Neil Gaiman: I left my heart in Gormenghast |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/neil-gaiman-left-heart-gormenghast/ |access-date=5 July 2024 |work=The Telegraph |language=en-GB |issn=0307-1235}}</ref> [[Joanne Harris]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=6 October 2012 |title=Books that changed me: Joanne Harris |url=https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/books-that-changed-me-joanne-harris-20121006-275j5.html |access-date=5 July 2024 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}</ref> [[Simon Maginn]],<ref>{{Cite web |date=5 July 2012 |title=An Interview With Simon Maginn |url=https://gingernutsofhorror.wordpress.com/2012/07/05/an-interview-with-simon-maginn/ |access-date=5 July 2024 |website=THE GINGER NUTS OF HORROR |language=en}}</ref> [[Christopher Fowler]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Holland |first=Steve |date=20 March 2023 |title=Christopher Fowler obituary |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/mar/20/christopher-fowler-obituary |access-date=5 July 2024 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> and [[Susanna Clarke|Susanna Clarke.]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Preston |first=Alex |date=4 October 2020 |title=Piranesi by Susanna Clarke review – byzantine and beguiling |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/oct/04/piranesi-by-susanna-clarke-review-byzantine-and-beguiling |access-date=5 July 2024 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}</ref>

Peake is considered to be one of the Big Three of (secondary world) Fantasy, along with [[J. R. R. Tolkien]] and [[Robert E. Howard]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://magazine.trollbreath.com/the-big-three-of-fantasy/ | title=The Big Three of Fantasy | date=30 November 2024 }}</ref> Their equivalents in the [[science fiction]] genre are [[Isaac Asimov]], [[Arthur C. Clarke]], and [[Robert A. Heinlein]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://magazine.trollbreath.com/the-big-three-of-fantasy/ | title=The Big Three of Fantasy | date=30 November 2024 }}</ref>

==Bibliography==
'''''[[Gormenghast (series)|Gormenghast]]'''''
# ''[[Titus Groan (novel)|Titus Groan]]'' (1946)<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Peake, Mervyn Laurence | title=Titus Groan | date=1968 | publisher=Eyre & Spottiswoode | url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/work/8212651 | access-date=9 August 2019 }}</ref>
# ''[[Gormenghast (novel)|Gormenghast]]'' (1950)<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Peake, Mervyn Laurence | author2=Peake, Mervyn, 1911–1968. Gormenghast trilogy. 2 | title=Gormenghast | date=1998 | publisher=Vintage | isbn=978-0-7493-9482-0 }}</ref>
# ''[[Boy in Darkness]]'' (corrupt text 1956, corrected text 2007)
# ''[[Titus Alone]]'' (1959)<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Peake, Mervyn Laurence | title=Titus Alone | date=1970 | publisher=Penguin | edition= revised | isbn=978-0-14-003091-4 }}</ref>
# ''[[Titus Awakes]]'' (2011, completed by [[Maeve Gilmore]])<ref>{{Cite book | author1=Gilmore, Maeve | author2=Peake, Mervyn Laurence, 1911-1968 | title=Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast | date=2011 | publisher=Vintage | isbn=978-0-09-955276-5 }}</ref>
''[[Boy in Darkness]] and other stories'' (2007, the correct text and five other pieces)

'''Other works'''
* ''The White Chief of the Unzimbooboo Kaffirs'' (1921)
* ''[[Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor]]'' (1939)
* ''Shapes and Sounds'' (1941)
* ''[[Rhymes without Reason]]'' (1944)
* ''The Craft of the Lead Pencil'' (1946)
* ''[[Letters from a Lost Uncle]] (from Polar Regions)'' (1948)
* ''Drawings by Mervyn Peake'' (1949)
* ''The Glassblowers'' (1950)
* ''[[Mr Pye]]'' (1953)
* ''Figures of Speech'' (1954)
* ''[[The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb]]'' (1962)
* ''Poems and Drawings'' (1965)
* ''A Reverie of Bone and other Poems'' (1967)
* ''Selected Poems'' (1972)
* ''[[A Book of Nonsense]]'' (1972)
* ''The Drawings of Mervyn Peake'' (1974)
* ''Mervyn Peake: Writings and Drawings'' (1974)
* ''Twelve Poems'' (1975)
* ''Peake's Progress'' (1978)
* ''Ten Poems'' (1993)
* ''Eleven Poems'' (1995)
* ''The Cave'' (1996)
* [http://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781857549713 ''Collected Poems''] (2008)

===Illustrated books===
* ''[[Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor]]'' (by himself) (Country Life, 1939)
* ''Ride a Cock Horse and Other Nursery Rhymes'' (Chatto & Windus, 1940)
* ''The Adventures of The Young Soldier in Search of The Better World'' (by C. E. M. Joad) (Faber and Faber Ltd, 1943) 
* ''The Book of Lyonne'' (by Burgess Drake) (The Falcon Press, 1952)
* ''[[Hunting of the Snark]]'' (by [[Lewis Carroll]])
* ''[[Alice in Wonderland]]'' (by Lewis Carroll)
* ''[[The Rime of the Ancient Mariner]]'' (by [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]])
* ''Household Tales'' (by the [[Brothers Grimm]])
* ''All This and Bevin Too'' (by [[Quentin Crisp]])
* ''[[Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'' (by [[Robert Louis Stevenson]])
* ''[[Treasure Island]]'' (by [[Robert Louis Stevenson]])
* ''Droll Stories'' (by [[Honoré de Balzac|Balzac]]) (Folio Society, 1961)
* ''The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb'' (by himself) (1962)
* ''[[Titus Groan]]'', ''[[Gormenghast (novel)|Gormenghast]]'', and ''[[Titus Alone]]'' (by himself; several editions include an abundance of illustrations, on plates in the center and/or distributed through the text)
* ''[[The Swiss Family Robinson]]'' (by [[Johann David Wyss]])
* ''[[The Sunday Books]]'' (with [[Michael Moorcock]]) (Duckworth, 2008, from the French)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Clements, Warren (ed.), ''Peake Performance: The Magnificent Drawings of Mervyne Peake''. Toronto: Nestlings Press, 2020.  {{ISBN | 9781775343691 }}
* {{cite book |last=Elber-Aviram |first=Hadas |date=2021 |title=Fairy Tales of London: British Urban Fantasy, 1840 to the Present |publisher=Bloomsbury Academic |pages=95–130 |chapter=Chapter 3: The bells of lost London: Orwell's and Peake's anti-fantasies |isbn=9781350110694}}
* {{cite journal  | last = Elber-Aviram | first = Hadas | title = Dark and Deathless Rabble of Long Shadows: Peake, Dickens, Tolkien, and "this dark hive called London | journal = Peake Studies | volume = 14 | issue = 2 | year = 2015 | pages = 7–32| doi = 10.1515/peakest-2015-0002 | s2cid = 199487750 | doi-access = free }}
* {{cite book |last=Gardiner-Scott |first=Tanya |date=1989 |title=Mervyn Peake: The Evolution of a Dark Romantic |publisher=Peter Lang |isbn=9780820409436}}
* {{cite book |last=Gifford |first= James |date=2018 |title=A Modernist Fantasy: Modernism, Anarchism, & the Radical Fantastic |publisher=ELS |pages=122–144 |chapter=Peake's Romantic Gormenghast |isbn=9781550583939}}
* {{cite journal  | last = Gilbert | first = Charles | title = Mervyn Peake and Memory | journal = Peake Studies | volume = 5 | issue = 4 | year = 1998 | pages = 5–20}}
* {{cite journal | last = Le Cam | first = Pierre-Yves | title = Peake's Fantastic Realism in the Titus Books | journal = Peake Studies | volume = 3 | issue = 4 | year = 1994 | pages = 5–15}}
* {{cite book |last=Manlove |first=Colin |date=1975 |title=Modern Fantasy: Five Studies  |publisher=Cambridge University Press  |pages=207–257 |chapter=Mervyn Peake (1911-1968-The 'Titus' Trilogy  |isbn=9780521293860}} 
* {{cite book |last=Smith |first=Gordon |date=1984 |title=Mervyn Peake: A Personal Memoir |publisher=Gollancz |isbn=9780575034310}}
* {{cite book |last=Watney |first=John |date=1976 |title=Mervyn Peake |publisher=Joseph |isbn=9780312530259}}
* Winnington, G. Peter (ed.) (2006), ''Mervyn Peake: the man and his art'' (London: Peter Owen)
* Winnington, G. Peter (2000), ''Vast Alchemies: the life and work of Mervyn Peake''. Revised and enlarged in 2009 as ''Mervyn Peake's Vast Alchemies'' (London: Peter Owen)
* Winnington, G. Peter (2006), ''The Voice of the Heart: the working of Mervyn Peake's imagination'' (Liverpool University Press / Chicago University Press)
* Winnington, G. Peter. "Mervyn Peake's Lonely World". ''Wormwood'' No 3 (Autumn 2004), 1–21.
* {{cite book |last=Yorke |first=Malcolm |date=2000 |title=Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold, a Life |publisher=Murray |isbn=9781585672110}} 
* Peake, Mervyn (ca.1950), "Notes towards a Projected Autobiography", printed in Maeve Gilmore (ed.), ''Peake's Progress: Selected Writings and Drawings of Mervyn Peake'' (London: Allen Lane, 1978)
* "[https://peakestudies.com/contents.htm Peake in Print]" is a full primary and secondary bibliography.

==External links==
* [http://www.mervynpeake.org/ Mervyn Peake] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211021184942/https://www.mervynpeake.org/ |date=21 October 2021 }}&nbsp;– the official site
* {{FadedPage|id=Peake, Mervyn|name=Mervyn Peake|author=yes}}
* {{Art UK bio}}
* [http://www.mervynpeake.org/gormenghast/ Gormenghast]&nbsp;– the official Gormenghast site
* {{ISFDB name|2318}}
* {{IBList|type=author|id=579|name=Mervyn Peake}}
* [http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3515 the Peake entry in the Literary Encyclopedia]
* {{Cite journal|last=Riggenbach|first=Jeff|title=Mervyn Peake and the Great Individualist Novel |journal=Mises Daily |publisher=[[Ludwig von Mises Institute]] |date=22 July 2010|url=http://mises.org/daily/4577/Mervyn-Peake-and-the-Great-Individualist-Novel}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100416140431/http://home.earthlink.net/~ellendebrock/gormenghast.htm Gormenghast Castle]
* [http://www.npg.org.uk/live/search/portrait.asp?LinkID=mp05657&rNo=0&role=sit Self-portrait from the National Portrait Gallery collection]
* [http://www.peakestudies.com/ Peake Studies]&nbsp;– the periodical dedicated to Peake's life and work, with a complete Peake bibliography

{{Subject bar|commons=yes|commons-search=Category:Mervyn Peake|q=yes|d=yes|d-search=Q6515}}

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