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His work is sometimes compared to his contemporary J.R.R. Tolkien, but his fiction is firmly located in the Fantasist Realist genre, rather than in the mythical fantasy realms of Tolkien. Although frequently surreal in tone, Peake's prose fiction -- which was influenced by his early love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson -- are rooted in reality, or in recognisable alternate realities.
Peake also wrote a number of nonsense poems, a children's story "Letters from a Lost Uncle", a radio play and " Mr Pye ", a relatively tightly-structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.
Peake first made his reputation as a painter and illustrator during the 1930s and 1940s, when he lived in London, and he was often commissioned to produce portraits of well-known people. A collection of these drawings is still in the possession of his family. Although he gained little popular success in his lifetime, his work was highly respected by his peers and his friends included Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. His works are now included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.
Mervyn Peake was born in Kuling in central China in 1911 of British parents; his father Ernest Cromwell Peake was a doctor and Christian missionaryA missionary is a propagator of religion, often an evangelist or other representative of a religious community who works among those outside of that community. The English word "missionary" is derived from Latin, the equivalent of the Greek-derived word,. Oriental influences can be detected in his work, not least in the castle of Gormenghast itself, which in some respects resembles a TibetThis article is on Historic Tibet. Tibet" can also refer to the Tibet Autonomous Region. Tibet ( Tibetan : , (Bod) pronounced Po, Chinese: , pinyin: Xizang) is a region of Central Asia and the home of the Tibetan people. With an average elevation of 4,900an lamaseryThe Potala Palace located in Lhasa, Tibet, was the chief residence of the Dalai Lama until the 14th Dalai Lama fled to Dharamsala after a failed uprising in 1959. It is now a popular tourist attraction and an UNESCO World Heritage Site. Built on the side more than the Gothic castleThis article describes the fortified buildings. Castle" is also an alternative name for the Rook and the move of castling in chess. The Castle (from the Latin castellum diminutive of castra a military camp, in turn the plural of castrum or watchpost), is it is meant to be. However it is likely that his early exposure to the extreme contrasts between the lives of the poor and the refined, highly structured lives of the Chinese nobility also exerted a strong influence on the Gormenghast books.
Peake attended Tientsin Grammar School until the family returned to England in 1923. His education continued at Eltham College , where his talents were encouraged by his English teacher, Eric Drake. He completed his formal education at Croydon School of Art and at the Royal Academy Schools from 1929-33, where he first painted in oils and wrote his first long poems. He first exhibited at the Royal AcademyThe Royal Academy is an art institution based in London, England. History It was formed to rival the Society of Artists after an unseemly leadership dispute between two leading architects, Sir William Chambers and James Paine). Paine won, but Chambers vow and with the so-called " Soho Group " in 1931.
His early career in the 1930s was as a painter in London, although at the time he lived on the Channel Island of SarkSark is a small island of the Channel Islands, part of the Bailiwick of Guernsey. It has a population of 610 ( 2002). No cars are allowed on the small island, where tractors and bicycles are the only means of transport. Passengers and goods arriving by fe where, it was said, he sometimes painted in the nude. He first moved to Sark in 1932 after visiting his former teacher Eric Drake, who lived there with a group of other artists. In 1934 he exhibited with the Sark artists at the Cooling Galleries in London and in 1935 he exhibited at the Royal Academy and at the Leger Galleries in London.
In 1936 he returned to London and was commissioned to design the sets and costumes for Insect Play and his work was acclaimed in the Sunday Times. He also began teaching life drawing at Westminster School of Art where he met painter Maeve Gilmour , whom he married in 1937. They had three children, Sebastian (b. 1940), Fabian (b. 1942) and Clare (b.1949).
In 1937 he was commissioned by Chatto & Windus to illustrate a children's book, Ride a Cock Horse and Other Nursery Rhymes. He had a very successful exhibition of paintings at the Calmann Gallery in London in 1938 and his first book, the self-illustrated chlidren's pirate romance Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor (based on a story he had written in his youth) was first published in 1939 by Country Life.
After World War II began he applied to become a war artist in 1940 but this was initially refused and he was conscripted to the Army, where he served as an engineer . He began writing Titus Groan at this time.
In 1942 he was sent to Southport Hospital suffering from a nervous breakdown. The next year he was invalided out of the army and began working for the British Ministry of Information as a war artist. In 1943 he was commissioned by the Ministry to paint the glassblowers at a Birmingham factory.
The five years between 1943 and 1948 were some of the most productive of his career. During this period he finished Titus Groan and Gormenghast and completed soem of his most acclaimed illustrations for books by other authors, including Ride a Cock Horse, Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark and Alice in Wonderland, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Brothers Grimm's Household Tales, All This and Bevin Too by Quentin Crisp and Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , as well as producing many original poems, drawings and paintings.
A book of nonsense poems, Rhymes Without Reason, was published in 1944 and was described by John Betjeman as "oustanding". In 1945 he was commissioned by a magazine to visit France and Germany shortly after the war had ended. With writer Tom Pocock he was one of the first Britons to witness the horrors of the Nazi concentration camp at Belsen. He made many drawings of the scenes he encountered, but not surprisingly he found the experience profoundly harrowing.
In 1946 the family moved to Sark, where Peake continued to write and illustrate and Maeve painted. Gormenghast was published in 1950, and the family moved back to the mainland, settling in Smarden , Kent. Peake taught part-time at the Central School of Art , began what was to be his last novel Mr Pye and renewed his interest in theatre. His father died that year and left his house in Wallington, Surrey to Mervyn. Mr Pye was published in 1951.
In 1956 Mervyn and Maeve visited Spain so that Mervyn could convalesce after an illness, and the short story Boy In Darkness as published. He placed much hope in his play The Wit To Woo and it was finally staged in the London's West End in 1957, but it was a critical and commercial failure. This affected him greatly -- his health degenerated rapidly and he was again admitted to hospital with a nervous breakdown.
By 1958 he was showing unmistakable early symptoms of Parkinson's Disease and over the next few years he began to gradually lose the ability to draw steadily and quickly, although he still managed to produce some drawings with the help of his wife. Among his last completed works were the illustrations for Balzac's Droll Stories ( 1961) and his own illustrated poem The Rhyme Of The Flying Bomb ( 1962).
Titus Alone was published in 1959 and was revised by Langdon Jones in 1970 to remove apparent inconsistencies introduced by the publisher's careless editing.
Peake died in November 1968. His work, and the Gormenghast books in particular, became much better known and more widely appreciated after his death, and they have since been reprinted in many languages.
Four collections of his poems were published during his lifetime; Shapes & Sounds ( 1941), The Glassblowers ( 1950), Poems & Drawings ( 1965), and A Reverie of Bone ( 1967). After his death there were two other publications, Selected Poems - Mervyn Peake ( 1972), and The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb ( 1973).