Mervyn Peake's Blog, page 4

Fine art prints of Ian Miller's Gormenghast drawings

The artist and illustrator, Ian Miller, has long been associated with Mervyn Peake. He's produced many paintings which were inspired by reading Gormenghast and these have been published in various collections since the 1970's. We are pleased to show you three of his recent drawings, all of which are now available as A2 signed limited edition giclee prints.

The quality of the work is superb, and the detail extraordinary. The prints are of the highest standard and they are available from Alison Eldred. There is a view of Gormenghast castle itself, one of the Hall of Bright Carvings and one of the Tower of Flints.

You can see more about Ian Miller here, and information on the prints here.

A donation of £5 per print will be made to Parkinson's UK.

Londoner's Diary

Doesn't it revive one's belief in people, when do what they say they will. Thus the lovely piece in Londoner's Diary in the Evening Standard today referring to the Mervyn Peake Awards held on 6th July, just a few days before 9th, my father's actual birthday, drew attention to both him as writer and the awards dedicated to him.So thanks to the journalist Timur Moor, whose own father studied art at Chelsea with Fabian Peake.

The 2012 Mervyn Peake Awards

A report on this year's awards.

Fabian Peake Poetry Reading

On Saturday 7th July 2012 Fabian Peake gave a public reading of his poetry at the 43 Inverness Street Gallery in London NW1. Standing in front of his large and acclaimed canvas, The Tapir's Companion, he gave a full house a reading of several of his highly individualistic poems. Following this he elaborated eloquently on both his art and his poems. One of which an eight line verse in Morse code held the audience's attention such that a pin could have been heard as it dropped onto the shining lacquer of the gallery floor. A rousing reception greeted the end of his recital.

Breaking Free: An Introduction to Titus Alone

Michael Moorcock writes in London Peculiar - and Other Nonfiction. 

Michael Moorcock's reading of Titus Alone displays in its elegant and sensitive synopsis, a closeness to the spirit of the story and a true empathy with the writer. Moorcock's correct view that Titus the eponymous hero is essentially lost within a world he only half recognises, also senses intuitively that is is vital he escape 'the hermetically-sealed world of Gormenghast', and into 'the second half of the 20th Century'. The character that displaces Steerpike in this third novel in the Titus sequence and one whose dominance very much drives the narrative, is the powerful Muzzlehatch, a composite of people both real and imagined whose presence would have entered the real world of the writer in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. Inventions that now challenged pre war naivete replaced an innocence, culminating in the figure of Veil whose representation of evil can surely trace its origins to the writer's ultimate witness; the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

A Talk at Camberwell Library

A talk on the life and work of Mervyn Peake will be given at 6.30pm on 29th June 2012 by Sebastian Peake.

The illustrated talk will take the audience from Mervyn Peake's birth and first twelve years in China, to his student days at the Royal Academy of Art and war artist at the liberation of Bergen-Belsen in June 1945. The publication of his first novel, Titus Groan in 1946, Gormenghast in1950 and subsequent books, plays and his illustrations for many English classics will all be highlighted.

Camberwell Library, 17-21 Camberwell Church Street, London SE5 8TR

Telephone 020 7525 2000

Gormenghast play at Bury St Edmunds

Another short run production of John Constable's adaptation of Gormenghast takes place at the Theatre Royal, Bury St Edmunds, from 31st August - 1st September 2012.

Gormenghast or Westminster

In last Saturday's Guardian Review there was a reference to an All-Party Parliamentary group of women chaired by Jo Swinton, (Liberal-Democrat), all involved in the charity, Changing Faces. The reporter, Tanya Gold, noted that 'it must have been the largest female group ever seen in Gormenghast', referring to the meeting that took place in the Palace of Westminster.

The Long Wait Vindicated

Some years ago the specialist publisher Queen Anne Press approached the Mervyn Peake estate with an idea that has now been brought to glorious life. Ten volumes of work have been published and these are available either linen-bound or in goatskin.

The look of the volumes is quite magnificent, with the quality of paper and reproduction of both character illustration and margin drawings taken from the original manuscripts owned by the British Library, of the highest standard. The set which includes not only the Titus books, but Mr Pye, Titus Awakes, Captain Slaughterboard and other titles not previously known in this format, sets a precedent for Peake work unlikely ever to be surpassed. This outstanding tour de force of both visual and tactile reproduction is a must for those exhilarated by the idiosyncratic and original voice of the author and illustrator.

Under a Canvas Sky, in paperback

After the good reviews Clare had when Under a Canvas Sky first appeared last year, a paperback edition has just appeared. With a lovely drawing of her as a young girl by her father, let's hope that the beautifully-written autobiography meets with the same success as the hardback edition. Tender, incisive, poignant, and sad in parts, an initially idyllic childhood in Sark, Chelsea and later Kensington, is set against a later tragedy which touches the heart.