ISBN 978 0 7206 1284 4
Non-fiction

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224pp
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Mervyn Peake:
The Man and his Art

Compiled by Sebastian Peake, Alison Eldred
Edited by G. Peter Winnington

A MAJOR NEW VOLUME

Mervyn Peake was one of the most multi-talented artists of the twentieth century. Best known for his Gormenghast trilogy of novels, one of the most sustained flights of imaginative writing ever attempted, Peake was also an author of children’s books and nonsense verse, a painter, war artist and poet. He illustrated such classic works as Treasure Island, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Ancient Mariner, Grimm’s Household Tales and Bleak House. A man of extraordinary vision and imagination, his illustrations, paintings and writings are unforgettable. His influence is felt to this day in the fields of literature and art, and he has been an inspiration to many.

In this highly illustrated new book, his 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.

'Writer-artist Peake (1911 - 68) seems ever about to be vaulted into the front rank of twentieth-century English artists. This marvelous album focused on his artwork may at last do the trick. His writing and the illustrative art for which he is best known are of a piece, balancing beauty and ugliness, humor and horror, sumptuousness and bleakness. Although he created gorgeous, romantic portraits, his famous figures are grotesques, descendants of Cruikshank's and Tenniel's in comic appeal; of Goya's monsters, berserkers, and victims in shock appeal - especially in a satiric World War II series representing paintings ostensibly by Hitler. His finest illustrations are those done for his own books, especially the trilogy of Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone that sustains his literary reputation, especially among the upper literary tier of fantasists. His son Sebastian collaborates with art consultant Alison Eldred and biographer G. Peter Winnington in juxtaposing generous porfolios of the art with a text including contributions by Peake's much younger writer friend Michael Moorcock and theatrical and film adapters of the trilogy as well as seven technically revelatory biocritical chapters by Winnington. As rewarding to the intellect as to the eye, this is a magnificent book.' - Ray Olson, Booklist

'It's always interesting to glimpse the roots of an artist's vision, to see the first stirrings of inspiration and inclination. Mervyn Peake, known primarily as the author of the Gormenghast novels, was an artist first. His early work (at the age of ten) depicted the exotic environs of China, where he was born and lived with his British missionary parents before the family returned to England. An argument could be made that China provided the underpinnings of his unique artistic sensibility, and support for that view can be found in Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art.
This new book by his son, Sebastian Peake, in collaboration with Alison Eldred, edited by G. Peter Winnington (author of an acclaimed Peake biography), functions as both a memoir and artistic retrospective. Its premise is that Peake was first and foremost an artist who created thousands of witty expresive drawings, sketches and paintings, and whose service as a war artist during WW2 not only provided a valuable record of the horrors of the concentration camps but personally affected him deeply and permanently. During his lifetime his artistic ability was widely acknowledged. However, after his death, Gormenghast became the lens through which Peake was viewed.
Mervyn Peake . . . should help correct that view. It's packed with artwork, offering a marvelous selection of early sketches, notebook pages, book illustrations, photographs letters, and paintings. Among the illustrations provided are samples for his workfor Treasure Island, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Bleak House and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.
Even in Peake's earliest sketches, dating from his childhood in China, his skill with line is evident. At age 16 he illustrated a series of Walter De la Mare poems for his own pleasure. The sketches show just how confident and expressive his early work really was. This expressiveness would become a hallmark of his later artwork. In particular, his mature drawings and paintings reveal the artist's skill and humor, frequently verging on caricature and cartoon. In his own advice to young artists in The Craft of the Lead Pencil, Peake writes: 'Do not be afraid to exaggerate in order to convey the real intention of your drawing,'

Handsome, respectful and well organized, this book presents its complex subject in a forthright, affectionate manner, detailing Peake's childhood; his development as an artist, illustrator and writer; his domestic life; his service during WW2; the writing of many works, including the Gormenghast trilogy, followed by his tragic illness - later diagnosed as Parkinson's disease - and, after much suffering, his early death. Peake's unrestrained imagination has influenced a generation of writers. Perhaps with this book, his influence on artists will become equally profound.' – Locus Magazine

 

Master of the Dark Arts

Ignored for decades, the twisted genius of Mervyn Peake is finally getting the attention it deserves
BY JOEL MEADOWS

With a career encompassing 25 years that included five novels, a handful of plays and thousands of drawings, paintings and sketches, why isn't Mervyn Peake a more celebrated English literary and artistic hero? A cult figure today, Peake is best known for Gormenghast, his bleak but compelling gothic fantasy trilogy published in the 1940s and '50s about the hierarchy of a fictional castle, Gormenghast, and the Machiavellian machinations of its inhabitants. But he was also an accomplished illustrator, painter and war artist. "If somebody's good at everything, then they're never taken seriously, are they?" muses Chris Beetles, owner of the eponymous gallery in St. James' in London that hosted a rare exhibition of Peake's art in October.It is precisely this failure to acknowledge Peake's breadth of talent that Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art, a new and comprehensive guide to his career, seeks to redress. In 1998, Peake's son Sebastian met Alison Eldred, an avid collector of Peake's artworks at Beetles' gallery, and over dinner the new acquaintances decided to compile and edit a book which, says Sebastian, would show his father's "eclecticism and breadth to a new generation."
Though Peake's talent is indisputable, the source of his marvelously twisted imagination is elusive. Unlike the early years of many masters of the macabre, Peake's childhood was happy and contented. The son of a doctor with the London Missionary Society, Peake was born in Kuling, China, in 1911 and lived there until he was 11 years old. As a boy, he learned 600 basic Mandarin characters from a Chinese calligrapher, causing later observers to remark on the strange way he held his pen. After his family returned to England, Peake finished his education at Croydon School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools.
Early in his career, Peake became a documentary war artist during World War II. This experience appears to have pushed his world view and his art into a considerably darker realm. In June 1945, he was among the first British civilians to visit the liberated concentration camp at Belsen, Germany. Most of the former prisoners he saw there were too sick to be evacuated. The stark poems and drawings he made about these victims literally dying before his eyes are nearly too harrowing to bear. Returning to Britain, he finished the first Gormenghast book in 1946 and spent the next 20 years as a writer and illustrator, contributing art to the tales of the Brothers Grimm, Treasure Island and Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
While his style is similar to American contemporary Edward Gorey, Peake's bizarre sensibilities were less cruel. He enjoyed great critical acclaim as an artist during his career — he was commissioned by the Queen Mother to do illustrations for her grandson Prince Charles' nursery in the 1950s — but he was largely ignored by the literary observers of the time. Kingsley Amis once called Peake "a bad fantasy writer of maverick status."
This book shows just how wrong Amis and his cohorts were. The heavily illustrated tome punctuates examples of Peake's art and excerpts of his writing with purely biographical chapters. Cartoonist Chris Riddell of the Observer Sunday newspaper, Lord of the Rings illustrator John Howe, and others who have been influenced by Peake contribute a range of essays and analysis as well.
Fantasy and science fiction author Michael Moorcock, who contributes an introduction to the book, says: "Peake is in the great tradition of idiosyncratic English writers. His poetry and fiction, like theirs is sui generis and, like his drawing and painting, reveals authentic genius." Comic-book writer Alan ( Watchmen, Lost Girls) Moore calls Peake "probably one of the finest writers in the English language," but says literary snobbery that considers fantasy a lesser art form has contributed to his neglect.
Already at an ebb in his career, Peake developed Parkinson's disease in 1956. Despite attempts to improve his health with electroconvulsive therapy — in which high-voltage electricity is passed through the brain — he died in 1968 at the age of 57. His wife Maeve Gilmore, almost destitute after he died, went to the Tate Gallery to sell her husband's body of work. She was offered £1,500 for the complete collection. Disgusted, she stormed out. If there is any justice, Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art may well ensure that such snubs are not repeated.

Also available from Peter Owen:

Vast Alchemies: The Life and Work of Mervyn Peake by G. Peter Winnington

ISBN: 0720610796

£18.95