Mervyn Peake facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Mervyn Peake
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Mervyn Peake in the 1930s
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| Born | 9 July 1911 Kuling, Jiujiang, Qing China (modern-day Kuling is located on top of Mountain Lu, Jiujiang, China)
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| Died | 17 November 1968 (aged 57) Burcot, Oxfordshire, England
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| Occupation | Writer, artist, poet, illustrator |
| Spouse(s) | Maeve Gilmore |
| Children | 3 |
| Relatives | Jack Peñate (grandson) |
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Mervyn Laurence Peake (born 9 July 1911 – died 17 November 1968) was an English writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is most famous for his Gormenghast books. These four works were meant to be part of a much longer story. Sadly, Peake passed away before he could finish them all.
His books are sometimes compared to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien. However, Peake's unique and imaginative stories were inspired by writers like Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Mervyn Peake also wrote many poems and fun, nonsensical verses. He created short stories for both adults and children, such as Letters from a Lost Uncle (1948). He also wrote plays for the stage and radio, and other novels like Mr Pye (1953).
Peake first became known as a talented painter and illustrator in the 1930s and 1940s. He lived in London and was asked to paint portraits of famous people. Towards the end of World War II, he was hired by newspapers to draw scenes from the war. His family still owns many of his drawings.
Even though he wasn't very famous during his lifetime, other artists and writers respected his work greatly. His friends included famous people like Dylan Thomas and Graham Greene. Today, his art can be seen in important places like the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum. In 2008, The Times newspaper named him one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945."
Contents
Mervyn Peake's Early Life and Education
Mervyn Peake was born in 1911 in Kuling, China. This town is located on top of Mountain Lu in Jiujiang. His parents were British missionaries. His father, Ernest Cromwell Peake, was a doctor, and his mother, Amanda Elizabeth Powell, was a missionary assistant. They had met and married in China.
The Peake family visited England in 1914, just before World War I. They returned to China in 1916. Mervyn went to Tientsin Grammar School. In December 1922, the family moved back to England by taking the Trans-Siberian Railway.
Mervyn Peake never went back to China. However, people have noticed that Chinese ideas and images appear in his books. For example, the castle of Gormenghast might remind some of his birthplace, Kuling, or the ancient walled city of Beijing. His early experiences in China, seeing the differences between Europeans and Chinese, and between rich and poor, also influenced his Gormenghast books.
He continued his education at Eltham College from 1923 to 1929. His English teacher, Eric Drake, really encouraged his artistic talents. Peake then studied at Croydon School of Art and the Royal Academy Schools until 1933. This is where he started painting with oils. By this time, he had already written his first long poem, A Touch o' the Ash. In 1931, one of his paintings was shown at the Royal Academy.
Mervyn Peake's Career as an Artist and Writer
In the 1930s, Mervyn Peake started his career as a painter in London. For a while, he lived on the Channel Island of Sark. He moved there in 1932 because his old teacher, Eric Drake, was starting an artists' community. In 1934, Peake showed his art with other Sark artists. He also exhibited his work in London in 1935.
In 1936, he returned to London. He was asked to design the sets and costumes for a play called The Insect Play. His work was praised in The Sunday Times. He also began teaching drawing at Westminster School of Art. There, he met another painter named Maeve Gilmore. They got married in 1937 and had three children: Sebastian, Fabian, and Clare.
In 1938, he had a very successful art show in London. His first book, a children's pirate story called Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor, was published in 1939. He also illustrated a children's book of nursery rhymes in 1940.
Joining the Army
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When World War II began, Mervyn Peake wanted to become a war artist. He hoped to use his art skills to help his country. He even drew ideas for an exhibition called An Exhibition by the Artist, Adolf Hitler. These drawings showed terrible war scenes with ironic titles. The British Ministry of Information bought his drawings.
However, Peake's request to be a war artist was turned down. He was instead made to join the Army. He served first in the Royal Artillery and then in the Royal Engineers. It was during this time that he started writing his famous novel, Titus Groan.
In 1942, after his requests to be a war artist were still refused, he became unwell. He was sent to Southport Hospital. Later that year, he worked for the Ministry of Information as a graphic artist. He created illustrations for propaganda. In 1943, he left the Army due to his health.
The War Artists' Advisory Committee then hired him. He painted glassblowers at a factory that made parts for early radar sets. Peake also painted other factory scenes and a large painting of RAF pilots. Some of these paintings are now in the Manchester Art Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.
Becoming a Famous Illustrator and Writer
The years between 1943 and 1948 were very busy for Mervyn Peake. He finished his first two Gormenghast books, Titus Groan and Gormenghast. He also created amazing illustrations for books by other authors. These included Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark and Alice in Wonderland. He also illustrated The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm.
Peake designed the logo for Pan Books, a publishing company. He was offered either a one-time payment or a small royalty for each book sold. On the advice of his friend Graham Greene, he chose the one-time payment. Greene thought paperback books were just a passing trend!
In 1944, his book of nonsense poems, Rhymes Without Reason, was published. The poet John Betjeman called it "outstanding." After the war ended in 1945, Peake was asked to visit France and Germany for Picture Post magazine. He was one of the first British civilians to see the horrors of the Belsen concentration camp. He made several drawings there. This experience was very upsetting for him, and he wrote powerful poems about it.
In 1946, Mervyn and Maeve moved to Sark. Peake continued to write and illustrate, and Maeve painted. Gormenghast was published in 1950. The family then moved back to England. Peake taught part-time at the Central School of Art. He also started writing his funny novel Mr Pye. His father passed away that year and left his house to Mervyn. Mr Pye was published in 1953, and Peake later turned it into a radio play. The BBC also broadcast other plays he wrote.
Later Life and Legacy
In 1956, Mervyn and Maeve visited Spain. A friend paid for the trip, hoping it would help Peake's health, which was already getting worse. That year, his short novel Boy in Darkness was published. The BBC also broadcast his radio play The Eye of the Beholder.
Peake had high hopes for his play The Wit to Woo. It was performed in London in 1957, but it was not successful. This greatly affected him, and his health quickly got worse. He was admitted to the hospital again.
Declining Health
Mervyn Peake started showing clear signs of a serious illness that affected his brain. Over the next few years, it became harder for him to draw steadily and quickly. However, with his wife's help, he still managed to create some drawings. Some of his last completed works were illustrations for Droll Stories (1961) and for his own poem The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb (1962).
Titus Alone, the third Gormenghast novel, was published in 1959. A later edition in 1995 included a very short part of what would have been the fourth Gormenghast novel, Titus Awakes. It also listed ideas he had for future Gormenghast stories.
Death and Lasting Impact
Throughout the 1960s, Mervyn Peake's health continued to decline. He passed away on 17 November 1968, at a care home near Oxford. He was buried in the churchyard of St Mary's in Burpham, Sussex.
After his death, his work, especially the Gormenghast series, became much more famous and appreciated. His books have now been translated into more than two dozen languages around the world.
Mervyn Peake's Archive
In 2010, the British Library acquired a large collection of Mervyn Peake's materials. This included letters between Peake and other famous writers like Laurie Lee and C. S. Lewis. It also contained 39 Gormenghast notebooks and original drawings for Alice Through the Looking Glass and Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. You can find out more about this collection on the British Library website. In 2020, the British Library also bought 300 of Peake's original illustrations for children's stories and other works.
Commemoration and Tributes
In 2018, Mervyn Peake's three children shared memories of their father on BBC Radio Four. They talked about how important the island of Sark was to him.
On 30 August 2019, the first blue plaque on Sark was put up in Peake's honor. It is located at the Gallery Stores in the Avenue.
Plays and Shows Based on Peake's Work
Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast books have been adapted into many plays and shows:
- In 1983, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation created an eight-hour radio drama of the complete Gormenghast series. This was the first time Titus Alone was included.
- In 1984, BBC Radio 4 broadcast two long plays based on Titus Groan and Gormenghast. Sting played the character Steerpike.
- In 1986, his novel Mr Pye was made into a four-part TV miniseries by Channel 4. It starred Derek Jacobi.
- In 2000, the BBC and WGBH Boston made a big TV miniseries called Gormenghast. It was based on the first two books and featured many well-known actors like Jonathan Rhys-Meyers and Christopher Lee.
- A 30-minute TV short film, A Boy in Darkness, was also made in 2000. It was set in a computer-generated world and starred Jack Ryder.
- Irmin Schmidt, from the German band Can, wrote an opera called Gormenghast. It was first performed in Germany in 1998.
- Some songs by the New Zealand band Split Enz and the British bands The Cure and Strawbs were inspired by Peake's books.
- Peake's play The Cave, written in the 1950s, was first publicly read in 2009 and had its world premiere in London in 2010.
- In 2011, Brian Sibley adapted the story again for BBC Radio 4. This six-hour series, called The History of Titus Groan, included all three of Mervyn Peake's novels and the recently found ending, Titus Awakes, completed by his wife, Maeve Gilmore.
For a short time in the 1980s, Sting owned the rights to make movies of the Gormenghast novels. He even thought about making concept albums based on them. As of 2015, author Neil Gaiman was discussing adapting the novels for the big screen.
See also
In Spanish: Mervyn Peake para niños
