Published monographs wholly about Mervyn Peake
Books containing sections, chapters, or just a page or two about Peake are in Part G
- Maeve Gilmore, A World Away: a memoir of Mervyn Peake
- John Batchelor, Mervyn Peake: a biographical and critical exploration
- John Watney, Mervyn Peake
- Arthur Metzger, A Guide to the Gormenghast Trilogy
- Gordon Smith, Mervyn Peake: a personal memoir
- Tanya J. Gardiner-Scott, Mervyn Peake: the evolution of a dark romantic
- Sebastian Peake, A Child of Bliss: growing up with Mervyn Peake
- Peake Papers (edited by various hands)
- Titus Alone: a new life. Peake Papers 1999, edited by Mark McGuinness
- Estelle Daniel, The Art of Gormenghast: the making of a television fantasy
- G Peter Winnington, Vast Alchemies: the life and works of Mervyn Peake
- Malcolm Yorke, Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold – a life
- Alice Mills, Stuckness in the Fiction of Mervyn Peake
- Mervyn Peake: the man and his art, compiled by Sebastian Peake and Alison Eldred, edited by G. Peter Winnington
- G.
Peter Winnington, The Voice of the Heart: the working of Mervyn Peake’s
imagination
a. First edition, simultaneous hardback and paperback, Liverpool University Press, published 3 October 2006. Distributed in North America by Chicago University Press.
Critical study of Mervyn Peake’s prose, poetry and plays, relating them to his visual art. Reproduces fifty images. Index.
See the separate pages for more details, the contents page and corrections and comments.
Reviews
TLS, 9 March 2007, p.27, by David Malcolm
Books in Canada, September 2007, by Jeff Bursey
Peake Studies, October 2007 (10:iii, pp.26–40), by Rob Maslen
- G. Peter Winnington, Mervyn Peake’s Vast Alchemies: the illustrated biography
- Clare Peake, Under a Canvas Sky: Living Outside Gormenghast
- Miracle Enough: Papers on the works of Mervyn Peake, edited by G. Peter Winnington
- Stephen Foote, Mervyn Peake: Son of Sark
a. First edition, hardback, Gollancz, 1970.
Published in June; reprinted in August.
Contains 18 illustrations; three appendixes, plus index. Cover drawing by MG (reversed L to R) of MP drawing.
A pre-publication ‘puff’ describes the MS, which is ‘an awkward length – 15,000 words – and needs a creative editor, but it should not be lost’ (Times, 20 January 1968, p.21, by ‘Pooter’)
Reviews
Spectator, 20 June 1970, pp.819–20, by Anthony Burgess
TLS, 25 June 1970, p.678
New Library World, June 1983, vol.84, no.996, pp.94–105, by Stuart Hannabuss
b. First paperback edition, New English Library, 1971.
Text reset but not corrected; no illustrations or appendixes;
new cover design based on MP’s drawing, ‘Heads float about me’,
and a full-face photograph of MP.
c.
Second paperback edition, Methuen, 1983.
Contains a new preface by Michael Moorcock. Text and appendixes
reset without corrections. Contains 18 illustrations, of which 4 are new, but
(with one exception: the date of ‘Blue-eyed thugs’) they have the
same captions as in (a).
Review
MPR, Autumn
1983, no.17, pp.29–31, by Hugh Brogan
d. Third paperback edition, bound in with A Child of Bliss by Sebastian
Peake (see below) and retitled, Mervyn Peake: two lives,
Vintage, 1999.
a. First edition, hardback, Duckworth, 1974.
Dustwrapper drawing of a hand by MP. No other illustrations.
Reviews
British Book News, February 1975
TLS, 4 April 1975, p.354, by Hugh Brogan
New Statesman, 26 July 1974, vol.88, pp.121–22, by John Carey
Daily Telegraph, 1 August 1974, by Marilyn Edwards
Scotsman, 3 August 1974, by Derek Stanford
Financial Times, 15 August 1974, by I. M
Times Educational Supplement, 16 August 1974, by Colin McInnes
The Times, 22 August 1974, by Brian Alderson
Sunday Telegraph, 1 September 1974, by David Wright
Mervyn Peake Society Newsletter (later MPR), Autumn 1975, no.1, pp.13–17, by GPW
b. First paperback impression, Duckworth, 1977.
Identical to (a) except for the binding.
a. First edition, hardback, Michael Joseph, 1976 (23rd August, I think).
Simultaneously published by St. Martin’s Press, New York.
Contains 60 illustrations (mainly photographs), bibliography, and index.
Dustwrapper painting of MP by Maeve Gilmore.
Contains a cartoon from Lilliput ostensibly showing MP taking a ride on the shoulders of an officer who’s saying he won’t do this again – but this has been shown to be a drawing modified by Peake himself. The original cartoon was reprinted in Lilliput Goes to War published in November 1985.
Reviews
Birmingham Post, 20 August 1976, by Derek Stanford
The Scotsman, 21 August 1976, by Robert Nye
Observer, 22 August 1976, p.21, by Hugh Brogan
Sunday Telegraph, 22 August 1976, by Francis King
Country Life, 26 August 1976, vol.160, pp.565–66, by Paul Scott
Guardian, 26 August 1976, by Norman Shrapnel.
TLS, 27 August 1976, p.1048, by Eric Korn
Spectator, 28 August 1976, vol.237, p.13, by William Trevor
Sunday Times, 29 August 1976
Punch, 31 August 1976, vol.271, pp.318–19, by Quentin Crisp
Daily Telegraph, 2 September 1976, David Holloway
New Statesman, 3 September 1976, vol.92, no.2371, p.311, by Hilary Spurling
Chronicle & Echo [Northampton], 4 September 1976, by Des Christy
Financial Times, 9 September 1976, by Isobel Murray
The Times, 16 September 1976
Hampstead and Highgate Express, 17 September 1976, p.38 by Eva Tucker
Eastern Daily Press, 24 September 1976, by Iris Butler
Manchester Evening News, 4 October 1976
Yorkshire Post, 11 October 1976, by Tom Bentley
Bath and West Evening Chronicle, 13 October 1976, p.6, by Andy Langley
Surrey Daily Advertiser, 16 October 1976, by Tony Bridge
Tribune, 29 October 1976, by Martin Booth
Times Educational Supplement, 29 October 1976, p.26, by Heather Neill
Connoisseur, November 1976, vol.193, p.244, by Louise Collis
Times, 4 December 1976, p.11, by Bevis Hillier
Publishers Weekly, 13 December 1976, vol.210, p.55
Books and Bookmen, January 1977, vol.22, p.57, by Alan Forrest
Arts Review, 15 April 1977, by Louise Collis
Year’s Work in English Studies, 1976, vol.57, p.352
Library Journal, 1 March 1977, vol.102, p.600
Burlington Magazine, March 1977, vol.119, p.225
Best Sellers, May 1977, vol.37, p.52
MPR 4, Spring 1977, pp.17 & 26, by GPW
b. First paperback
edition, Abacus (Sphere Books), 1977.
Text reset without corrections. Illustrations in two groups. Cover
painting trimmed to square shape.
a. First edition, T-K Graphics, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 1976.
A stapled 36-page booklet identifying, in an alphabetical list, some of the people and places named in the Titus books.
Review
MPR, Spring 1979, no.8, p.38, by GPW
a. First edition, hardback, Victor Gollancz, 1984.
Contains 49 illustrations and six photographs, plus dustwrapper drawing. Many of the illustrations were sold at Sotheby’s on 19 and 20 June 1986.
Reviews
MPR, Spring 1984, no.18, pp.33–35, by Eric Drake [MP’s English teacher at Eltham in the 1920s!]
Sunday Telegraph, 12 August 1984, by Linda O’Callaghan
Listener, 16 August 1984, by Brian Sibley
Daily Telegraph, 17 August 1984
Glasgow Herald, 18 August 1984, by RLM
Guardian, ?23 August 1984, p.8, by Norman Shrapnel
London Review of Books, 20 September 1984
Art & Artists, November 1984
British Book News, November 1984, by Mervyn Horder
Church Times, 30 November 1984, by Martin Fagg
The Artist, December 1984, p.6
a. First edition, hardback, Peter Lang, New York, 1989.
Literary criticism.
a. First edition, hardback, Lennard, Oxford, 1989.
Memoir by Peake’s elder son, containing a few previously unpublished drawings by MP and family photographs. Ultimately tells us much more about the author than about his father.
Reviews
Peake Studies, Autumn 1989 (8:iii, pp 33–38), titled ‘A Child of Bliss’, by GPW
Observer, 15 October 1989, by Lindsay Duguid
Guardian, 26 October 1989, by Norman Shrapnel
Guernsey Evening Press, 26 October 1989, by Mark Ogier
Jersey Evening Post, 28 October 1989, by DRW
Northern Echo, 14 December 1989, by Allan Prosser
b. First paperback edition, Vintage, London, 1999.
Bound in with his mother’s
memoir, A World Away (F1) and
jointly retitled, Mervyn Peake: two lives.
(Known as Peake Papers I)
a. First edition, simultaneous paperback and limited edition hardback, Mervyn Peake Society, London, 1994.
Contains critical articles:
Introduction, by Frank Surry
Talking about Gormenghast, by Aaron Judah [who collaborated with MP on a play in the late 50s – see Part E, unpublished plays)
Mervyn Peake, poet, by John Batchelor
These Varying Voices: the shorter fiction of Mervyn Peake, by Tanya Gardiner-Scott
Beneath Umbrageous Ceilings: postmodernism and the psychology of Mervyn Peake’s Titus Groan, by David Kennedy
Queer Creatures in Captain Slaughterboard and ‘Mr Slaughterboard’, by Alice Mills
Playing Around with Shapes and Sounds: reflections on Mervyn Peake and his use of the image in the Titus books, by Ann Yeoman
Gormenghast and Beyond: the centre of imaginative gravity of Mervyn Peake’s Titus books, by Mark McGuinness
Gormenghast: the construction of a body of maternal images, by Sally Jaquelin
Gormenghast, a Gothic World? by Pierre-Yves Le Cam
‘Something of a Holocaust’: the Titus novels and the Second World War, by Rob Hindle
a. First edition, paperback, Mervyn Peake Society, London, [dated] 1999, distributed 2001.
(Known as Peake Papers II)
Not paginated and full of errors; Mark McGuinness prepared an errata sheet.
Contains critical articles:
Introduction, by Clare Penate-Peake
The Inter-War Roots of Titus Alone, by Nick Freeman
The Science Fiction World of Titus Alone, by Pierre-Yves Le Cam
Titus and the Knuckle of Flint, by Mark McGuinness
Vertical Penetration and the Maternal Seductive in Titus Alone, by Alice Mills
Titus Alone and the Art of the Improbable, by Richard Swan
‘The Far Hyena Laughter’: the problem of evil in Titus Alone, by Ann Yeoman
a. First edition, paperback, HarperCollins Entertainment, 2000.
Numerous illustrations, both of MP’s work, production stills and photographs of scenes, scenery, and actors from the BBC adaptation of January–February 2000.
a. First edition, hardback, Peter Owen, 2000.
Contains nine photographs (most not previously printed in any book) of Peake and his wife Maeve; notes, bibliography and index.
See separate pages for the contents and corrections and additions.
Reviews
Birmingham Post, 12 February 2000 by Richard Edmonds
The Spectator, 19 February 2000, pp.40–41 by D. J. Taylor
The Times, 2 March 2000, p.41, by Iain Finlayson
The Independent, 13 March 2000, Monday Review section p.5, by Duncan Fallowell
The Tablet, 25 March 2000, p.421, by Robert Macfarlane
TLS, 5 May 2000, by Stephen Medcalf
Science Fiction Studies, Vol.28, pp.460–62, by Joe Sanders. Reproduced in July 2019 here.
b. Second, revised, edition, paperback, Peter Owen, 2009: see Mervyn Peake’s Vast Alchemies (below)
a. First edition, hardback, John Murray, 2000
Contains more than a hundred reproductions of MP’s work and family photographs, plus another twenty works reduced to vignettes, heading each chapter, plus notes and index.
Reviews
Daily Telegraph, 4 November 2000, by Hilary Spurling
Jersey Evening Post, 10 November, by Christine Herbert
Spectator, 18 November, p.57, by John McEwen
Oxford Times, 24 November 2000, by Christopher Gray
Art Review, December 2000/January 2001, p.71, by Matthew Sweet
Literary Review, December 2000/January 2001, p.19, by Tom Holland
Hampstead and Highgate Express, 1 December 2000, p.26, by Judy Cooke
Burton Mail, 9 December 2000, p.7
New York Times Book Review, 21 July, 2002, p.21, by Claudia La Rocco
b. First paperback edition, Faber & Faber, 2009
a. First edition, paperback, Rodopi, Amsterdam and New York, 2006. Costerus new series n°157.
Psycho-analytical study of Peake’s fiction.
Review
Peake Studies, Autumn 2006 (10:i, pp 46–50), by Pierre François
a. First edition, hardback,Peter Owen, published 3rd October 2006.
Twelve chapters, reproducing hundreds of images by Peake, prefaced by Sebastian Peake. Main text and captions by GPW, with essays (in order of appearance) by Michael Moorcock, Joanne Harris, Chris Riddell, John Wood, John Howe, John Constable, David Glass, Estelle Daniel, and Langdon Jones.
Alison Eldred described the making of this book in PS 10:i for October 2006.
See recent publications for more details.
b.
First paperback edition, Peter Owen, November 2008
a. First edition, paperback, Peter Owen, 2009
Contains more than sixty illustrations, plus notes and index.
A revised and enlarged edition of Vast Alchemies, without the section of photographs of Peake.
b. Second edition, ebook only, revised text. Letterworth Press, 2021.
Contains more than sixty illustrations, some of them new, many in colour. The revised text adds fresh information, particularly about MP’s extramarital affaires.
a. First edition, hardback, Constable, 2011
The autobiography of MP’s daughter.
Reviews
The Express, 10 June 2011, by Peter Burton
The Times, 18 June 2011
Sunday Times, 19 June 2011, by John Carey
Literary Review, 9 July 2011, by Fergus Fleming
The Tablet, 16 July 2011, by Catherine Nixey
Blog
Graeme K Talboys, Grumbooks, 12 June 2011
b. Paperback, Constable, April 2012
Review
The Book Bag, 2 April 2012, by John Van der Kiste
a. First edition, simultaneous hardback, paperback and ebook editions, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2013.
Critical articles, with 60 illustrations, mostly by MP.
Contents:
Introduction, by William Gray
Peake and Alice (and Arrietty), by G. Peter Winnington (p.1)
Shaping in Titus Groan, by Colin Manlove (p.21)
The Keda Mystery, by Pierre François (p.33)
But Are they Fantasy? Categorizing the Titus Novels, by Joe Young (p.49)
Peake and the Fuzzy Set of Fantasy: Some Informal Thoughts, by Farah Mendlesohn (p.61)
Algorithm of Disenchantment: Anti-Genre Effect in the Titus Books, by Larisa Prokhorova (p.75)
(In)visible Black Holes: Aporias in the Titus Books, by Irene Martyniuk (p.85)
‘There’s No Place Like Home’: Reflective Nostalgia in Titus Groan and Gormenghast, by Simon Eckstein (p.93)
Peake and Vulnerability, by Matthew Sangster (p.105)
There is Nowhere Else: Architecture and Space in the Titus Books, by Edward Carey (p.117)
MP, the Poet of Gormenghast, by R. W. Maslen (p.127)
Eccentricity in MPs Work, by Sophie Aymes-Stokes (p.139)
Exchanging Certainty for Uncertainty: MP Explores the Realms of Children’s Fiction, by Katherine Langrish (p.153)
The Imagination at Work: a Study of the Drawings in the Titus Manuscripts, by Zoë Wilcox (p.175)
The Fleeting Line: MP and Fairy Tale, by Francesca Bell (p.197)
A Tutorial with MP, by John Vernon Lord (p.217)
Adapting Titus Groan: creating the ‘sublime character’ through collaborative writing, by Prudence Chamberlain (p.241)
a. First edition, soft cover, Blue Ormer Publishing, 2019
Reproduces ten photographs of MP and family; seventeen pieces of artwork by MP, and two by Maeve Gilmore. Also contains twelve excellent photographs of Sark.
A 64-page booklet clearly aimed at tourists visiting Sark, it contains a suggested tour of Peake ‘sites’ on the island. Written by a local, it should be accurate as far as Sark is concerned; it is less so as regards MP.
©
G. Peter Winnington 2021
Continue
with Part G, assessments of Peake in books, or