Recent
& Forthcoming Books
by and about Mervyn Peake
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From Cambridge Scholars Publishing
a selection of the papers presented at
the Centenary Conference on Mervyn Peake
at the University of Chichester in 2011
Miracle Enough
A pdf of the opening pages and the Introduction
can be viewed here.
‘The varied approaches taken by these papers contribute to our understanding and appreciation of Mervyn Peake’s work, both as a writer and an illustrator’—Joanne Harris
View this item in CSP’s catalogue.
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2011 was Peake’s centenary year, marked by new books, plays, and exhibitions. Check out the special page devoted to it!
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Published
by Carcanet in July 2011
Mervyn
Peakes Complete Nonsense
See this page for corrections and additions
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Published by La Maison d’Ailleurs, Yverdon, Switzerland
a book – ‘catalogue’ would be a misnomer – accompanying the exhibition of Peake’s illustrations
‘Lignes de Fuite / Lines of Flight’ (3rd October 2009–14th February 2010).
It contains an Introduction by the curator of the Maison d’Ailleurs, Patrick Gyger, an essay on Peake’s technique and a chronology of Peake’s life by G. Peter Winnington, and an original Afterword by Michael Moorcock.
All the texts are printed in both English and French.
PLUS
100 pages of reproductions of Peake’s illustrations for
Captain Slaughterboard, The Hunting of the Snark,
Alice in Wonderland & through the Looking-Glass,
Household Tales, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Treasure Island and Mr Pye.
For sale through the Maison d’Ailleurs (ISBN 978-2-9700675-0-4)
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Published by Peter Owen 1st October 2009
Mervyn
Peakes Vast Alchemies, a new edition of Vast Alchemies
with much updated information and more than 60 illustrations,
some in colour, few of which have appeared in any book before.
The index is on this site and there’s a page for additions and corrections. (ISBN 978-0-7206-1341-4)
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Published
by Carcanet in June 2008
Mervyn
Peakes Collected Poems
See this page for corrections and additions
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Published
in December 2007 by Peter Owen
(the publisher of both Peakes Book
of Nonsense and Peter Winningtons biography of
Peake, Vast
Alchemies,
as well as Mervyn Peake: the Man and his Art mentioned
below),
Boy
in Darkness and other stories
Contains all Peakes
shorter fiction: Boy in Darkness and his five short stories, along
with
40 paintings and drawings by Peake in colour and black & white, many
of them previously unseen.
£9.95 ISBN 978-0-7206-1306-3
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The most wonderful book in the world
Click on the image to see a pdf of the full cover of this book.
This
large volume (11 x 9 inches, more than 200 pages) in full colour called Mervyn
Peake: the Man and his Art was published by Peter Owen on 3rd October
2006. A paperback edition came out at the end of 2008, the hardback having already
sold out.
It
contains about three hundred reproductions of paintings, drawings and illustrations
by Peake, chosen by Sebastian Peake and Alison Eldred, as well as essays on his
life and work. Contributors include Joanne
Harris, John Howe (whose essay can be read here),
Michael Moorcock, and half-a-dozen others. Peter Winnington edited the book and
wrote several of the chapters.
The book was very well received; the European edition of Time magazine devoted a whole page to it in the issue dated 11th December 2006, The Week named it as one of its favourite non-fiction books of the year, and it was the top-selling book in its category at Christmas 2006.
A
magnificent book
The July 2007 issue of Booklist (the monthly
journal of the American Librarians Association) opined that Peake
seems ever about to be vaulted into the front rank of 20th-century English artists.
This marvelous album, focused on his artwork, may do the trick. After praising
the seven technically revelatory biocritical chapters by Winnington,
the starred review concludes: As rewarding to the intellect as to the eye,
this is a magnificent book.
It was one of five titles shortlisted for
the Locus Best Art Book Award in 2008.
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Click
on the image to see the full cover of this book.
Peter
Winningtons study, The Voice of the Heart: the working of Mervyn Peakes
imagination, was also published on 3rd October 2006 (by Liverpool University
Press, distributed by Chicago
University Press in the USA). It was available in both hardback
and paperback. It is now out of print. Peter Winnington has a few spare copies.
Tom
Shippey (Professor, Walter J. Ong Chair of Humanities, at St Louis University)
writes:
Mervyn Peake is the anomaly among fantasists: the illustrator who heard more than he saw, the playwright whose characters habitually reach for solitude and silence, creator, in the Gormenghast sequence, of an intensely-realized world of attics and cellars and peripheries. Peter Winningtons The Voice of the Heart is the first study to take in Peakes entire multi-generic work as a whole, and treats it with engagingly new and individual approaches. Peake has at last received the focused and undistracted attention he above all requires.
More information about this book is available on a separate page.
Back
to the Peake STUDIES
home page.