Peake in Print is part of the Peake STUDIES website

Part F of “Peake in Print”

Published monographs wholly about Mervyn Peake.

Books containing sections, chapters, or just a page or two about Peake are in Part G.

Unless otherwise indicated, the place of publication is London.

  1. Maeve Gilmore, A World Away: a memoir of Mervyn Peake

    2. 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”: Times, 20 January 1968, p.21, by “Pooter”. [Describes the MS, which is “an awkward length – 15,000 words – and needs a creative editor, but it should not be lost.”]
    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.
     
     

  2. John Batchelor, Mervyn Peake: a biographical and critical exploration

    3. 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.
     
     

  3. John Watney, Mervyn Peake

    4. 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.
     
     

  4. Arthur Metzger, A Guide to the Gormenghast Trilogy

    5. a. First edition T-K Graphics, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, 1976.
    A stapled 36-page booklet identifying, in an alphabetical list, some of the proper nouns in the Titus books.
    Review: MPR, Spring 1979, no.8, p.38, by GPW
     
     
  5. Gordon Smith, Mervyn Peake: a personal memoir

    6. 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
     
     
  6. Tanya J. Gardiner-Scott, Mervyn Peake: the evolution of a dark romantic

    7. a. First edition, hardback Peter Lang, New York, 1989.
    Literary criticism.
     
     
  7. Sebastian Peake, A Child of Bliss: growing up with Mervyn Peake

    8. 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 and retitled, Mervyn Peake: two lives.
     
     

  8. Peake Papers edited by various hands

    9. a. First edition, simultaneous paperback and limited edition hardback Mervyn Peake Society, London, 1994.
    Critical articles (known as Peake Papers I).
    Contents:
    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
     
     
  9. Titus Alone: a new life. Peake Papers 1999, edited by Mark McGuinness

    10. a. First edition, paperback Mervyn Peake Society, London, [dated] 1999, distributed 2001. Also known as Peake Papers II
    Critical articles. Not paginated and full of errors; Mark McGuinness prepared an errata sheet.
    Contents:
    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
  10. Estelle Daniel, The Art of Gormenghast: the making of a television fantasy

    11. 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.
     
     
  11. G Peter Winnington, Vast Alchemies: the life and works of Mervyn Peake

    12. 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
     
  12. Malcolm Yorke, Mervyn Peake: My Eyes Mint Gold – a life

    13. 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


  13. Alice Mills, Stuckness in the Fiction of Mervyn Peake

    14. 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


  14. Mervyn Peake: the man and his art, edited by G. Peter Winnington, images selected by Sebastian Peake and Alison Eldred

    15. 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, Jon Constable, David Glass, Estelle Daniel, and Langdon-Jones.
    See recent publications for more details.


  15. 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 3rd 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 additions.
    Review:
    TLS, 9 March 2007, p.27 by David Malcolm

© G. Peter Winnington 2007

  

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This page last updated September 2007.