Peake’s contributions to periodicals in prose
For the letters by Peake that have been printed in Peake Studies since 1988 see the list of contents of past issues.
- News
from Afar [London Missionary Society], November 1922, p.172,
‘A Letter from China’ (illustrated)
Both letter and drawing were reprinted in MPR 11:4 & 5. Now available in Mervyn Peake: the Man and his Art, p.25. - News
from Afar [London Missionary Society], January 1924, p.9,
‘Ways of Travelling’ (illustrated)
Reproduced in WD, p.10. Now available in Mervyn Peake: the Man and his Art, p.26. - Convoy, July
1946, No.4, pp.23–27,
‘The Glass Blowers’ (illustrated)
A ‘prose poem’ reprinted in MPR 18:3–7. Now available in Mervyn Peake: the Man and his Art, pp.71–2. - Counterpoint,
1946, Vol.2,
‘Belsen 1945’
Two extracts from a diary.
Not seen. Cf. WI, p.38, item 16. - Listener,
27 November 1947, Vol.38, No.983, p.926,
‘What Makes a Good Book Illustration?’ (illustrated)
A radio talk in the series, ‘As I See it’ (see Part E). Not complete; the full text was printed in MPR 9:14–16 (Autumn 1979, below).
A shortened version also appeared in Design [Syracuse, New York], November 1948, Vol.50, No. 2, pp.22–23, entitled, ‘Illustrating for Books’. -
World Review, August
1949, New Series No.6, pp.55–59,
prose poem, ‘London Fantasy’ (illustrated).
Reprinted without the illustrations (!) in WD, p.78.
Reproduced from World Review, with illustrations, in MPR 16:11–15, and again in PS Vol.9, No.iv, pp.3–7. - Lilliput,
January 1950, Vol.26, No.1, issue No.151, pp.58–59,
short story, ‘The Connoisseurs’ (illustrated).
Reprinted in PP (see MPR 13:6.) and in Boy in Darkness and other stories (A21c)
There is also, on p.112 of this issue of Lilliput, a biographical note on MP. - Listener,
23 December 1954, Vol.52, No.1347, p.1106,
a radio talk, ‘Alice and Tenniel and Me’ (illustrated) – see Part E.
Not complete; the full text was printed in MPR 6:20–24 (Spring 1978, below).
- Athene
[Journal of New Society of Art Teachers], April 1957, Vol.8, No.3, p.21,
article, ‘What is Drawing?’
Reprinted in MPR 15:3. - Radio Times, for
the week of 7–14 July 1957,
‘In Search of Mr Pye’ – about the inception of the novel on which MP’s play, ‘For Mr Pye – an Island’ (broadcast on 10th July), was based.
Reprinted in PS 10:iii:3–4. - Science
Fantasy, 1963, Vol.20, No.60, pp.57–65,
short story, ‘Same Time, Same Place’
For reprints in books, see Part C: prose. - Science
Fantasy, 1963, Vol.21, No.61, pp.46–55,
short story, ‘Danse Macabre’
For reprints in books, see Part C: prose. - New Worlds,
February 1969, No.187, pp.[41–43],
‘The Adventures of Foot-fruit’ [a facsimile extract from the illustrated manuscript]
Reprinted in Complete Nonsense.
A note at the foot of p.82 in BN refers to this New Worlds item, but it is misleading; the text printed there does not correspond to this extract. - New
Worlds, September–October 1969, No.194, pp.20–23,
‘The Party at Lady Cusp-Canine’s’
A chapter omitted from the 1st edition of TA (A12a) and added to the revised edition (A12d). - Mervyn
Peake Review, Spring 1978, No.6, pp.20–24,
‘Alice and Tenniel and Me’
The complete text of his Listener radio talk, 1954 (above).
Reprinted in PS 12:iii (October 2011) pp.4–8. - Mervyn
Peake Review, Spring 1979, No.8, pp.3–5,
‘The Artist’s World’
A radio talk dating from 1947 (see Part E).
Reprinted in PS 12:ii (April 2011) pp.5–9, with a previously unpublished letter to MP from Kay Fuller. - Mervyn
Peake Review, Autumn 1979, No.9, pp.14–23,
‘Book Illustration’ (illustrated)
The complete text of his Listener radio talk, 1947 (above).
Reprinted in PS 12:ii (April 2011) pp.15–21. - Mervyn
Peake Review, Spring 1980, No.10, pp.4–16,
contributions to ‘The Reader Takes Over’, a BBC panel discussion of Titus Groan, recorded in 1947 (see Part E), edited and annotated by GPW.
Reprinted in PS 12:ii (April 2011) pp.27–41. - Mervyn
Peake Review, Summer 1985, No.19, pp.11–28,
[Fourteen] Letters to Maurice Collis, compiled and edited by John Watney, with one embellishment. - Mervyn Peake Review,
1987/88, No.21, pp.5–95,
‘Titus Groan: a radio play’
The text of the radio adaption by Peake broadcast on 1st February 1956. With a two-page introduction by Brian Sibley, and five sketches by Peake. - Mervyn
Peake Review, 1990, No.23, pp.[7–11],
‘Titus Awakes’
The few decipherable pages of Peake’s projected fourth book about Titus Groan, with a brief introduction by John Watney.
Reprinted in the Overlook edition of Titus Alone, pp.359–63 (1992).
Reprinted in Maeve Gilmore’s Titus Awakes, pp.1–5. - The
Mervyn Peake Review, 1996, No.29 [distributed 1997]
The Cave or Anima Mundi
An unperformed play; discussed in PS 5:3 (October 1997).
- Peake Studies,
October 2006, Vol 10 No 1, pp.[5]–42
Those Wicked Doctors: a farce in three acts
An unperformed play, complete.
- Peake
Studies, April 2007, Vol.10 No 2, pp.4–5
‘Private Language’
A brief dialogue, complete. - Peake
Studies, April 2007, Vol.10 No 2, pp.6–13
‘Isle Escape’
Fragments of an unfinished play.
- Peake
Studies, April 2007, Vol.10 No 2, pp.14–27
‘Four Old Men’ or ‘The Widowers’
Fragment of an unfinished play. - Peake
Studies, April 2008, Vol.10 No 4, pp.26–34
‘The Greenhorn’
Fragment of an unfinished play. - Peake
Studies, April 2008, Vol.10 No 4, pp.35–39
‘The Teddy Boys’
Fragment of an unfinished play. - Peake
Studies, April 2009, Vol.11 No 2, pp.3–32
‘Manifold Basket’
Fragment of an unfinished play. - Peake
Studies, April 2012, Vol.12 No 4, pp.4–18
‘Johnny Butterfield’
An unfinished story, with other pieces from the same notebook.
- Peake Studies, October 2014, Vol.14 No 1, pp.3–105
‘Mr Loftus, or a Horse of Air’ complete – free on this site.
Watney reported the sub-title as ‘A House of Air’ and I repeated his mistake right up to 2007 (thirty years!) when I was finally permitted to see the MS. It really is ‘A Horse of Air’ – a quotation from the early 17th-century ballad of Tom o’ Bedlam.
In a deleted draft of the play, there appears to be an alternative title and explanatory subtitle: ‘My Home, My Wilderness: a play to show conflict between instinctive belief and inner reality – and rationalism’ (Add MS 88931/3/3/1 at the British Library).
© G. Peter Winnington 2014
Please tell me of any corrections or additions I should make.