Product Description

This companion to the TV series of the "Gormenghast" trilogy provides an insight into the story, from the strange genius of Peake, the visionary author and illustrator, to the storyboard drawings of the award winning set designer Christopher Hobbs and the construction of the sets at Shepperton Studios. It includes illustrations and sketches which have never been publicly seen before, as well as the original notebooks with Peake's handwritten story notes and numerous marginal sketches. It also features profiles and interviews with the leading members of the production team and the cast.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #424185 in Books
• Published on: 2000-01-17
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Hats off to the BBC. Whether it was madness or genius that inspired a TV take on Mervyn Peake's dream- like, lyrical fantasy Gormenghast, the audacity of the attempt deserves to be saluted. They know it too. Hovering somewhere between arrogance and defiance, the first page of The Art of Gormenghast features a letter sent by Graham Greene to Mervyn Peake's wife in 1962 stating that the trilogy could not be filmed; "I'm very sorry to write so bluntly but what are the good of illusions?"

There need be no illusions about The Art of Gormenghast. This sumptuous companion to the TV series charts the making of an epic, inglorious behind-the-scenes Technicolor. Full-colour stills, interviews with leading members of the star-studded cast and production team, design, music and costume notes, storyboards, director's annotations and Peake's own illustrations are all woven together by producer Estelle Daniel's lovingly-crafted and wide-ranging narrative. Gormenghast's legacy is never far away, whether it's Daniel dissecting Peake's imaginary world, "his characters with their absurd names, are heightened and exaggerated towards the grotesque, but encompass a breadth of human experiences" or actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, displaying all the single-minded conviction of his character, "like Steerpike I would rather die than fail and that's honest. I would rather die than fail."

In his Foreword, Stephen Fry gives some idea of the scale of the BBC's undertaking commenting that "they [the producers] were talking, it seemed to me, about the equivalent of four British feature films in the time it takes to make one". The massive effort involved in realising this TV dream mirrors Peake's own struggle to complete his work through war and illness; "He wrote in 'publishers' dummies' throughout the war ... At the end of each home leave he would pile them up under the bed ... his wife Maeve even sleeping with them so that she could move them quickly in case of an air raid." The parallel struggles bear witness to the potential of individual vision to achieve the extraordinary.

The Art of Gormenghast is a beautifully presented volume with absorbing text and photography that will delight all lovers of Peake's fantastic creation. It may have taken more than half a century to get this far but inevitably all roads lead to Gormenghast. --Iain Campbell

About the Author
Estelle Daniel is the producer of the BBC TV series of Gormenghast. She joined the BBC in the early eighties and went on to work with Michael Wearing as his Head of Development for some 8 years, commissioning projects such as Middlemarch, Pride & Prejudice and Our Friends in the North.

Customer Reviews

Splendidly visual tribute to both author and production team
Unlike many TV/film tie-in books, this is far more than a self-congratulatory tale from a talented production team. It is as much a tribute to the genius of the author as it is to the people who succeeded in filming his 'unfilmable' books after 50 years.

Brimming with set and costume designs, storyboards and cast photos, as well as Peake's own sketches and notes, this is a visual treat of the first order.

Perhaps the author (who is also the producer) and one or two other contributors stray once too often up the blind alley of attempting to 'explain' the story in terms of history and social allegory - a sore point for fans who love the books precisely because they are hard-to-pin-down (and hard-to-put-down) flights of fancy - but the background details of Peake's upbringing and (often terrible) experiences are welcome reminders of the uniqueness of this neglected genius.

Bodes well for the TV series, which in turn must bode well for a revival of interest in Peake's work.

Fantastic!
I live in the states and for some twisted reason they decided not to sell The Art of Gormenghast in the states and since I love the movie Gormenghast I was really disappointed BUT thank goodness we have amazon.co.uk because I was able to order it from here and the shipping and handeling wasnt at all expensive and they shipped it out really quickly.So if your an American and you really want this book then this is the best place to get it.And is it worth it?Oh yes!Definitly yes!If you are a fan of either the miniseries or Mervyn Peake then this is the book for you.Theres a great chapter on Peake and there are interviews with all the actors in the miniseries and it explains about the costumes and special effects and it is just wonderful!Great photos too of scenes from the movie and peakes illustrations of how he saw the characters and great pictures of Peake too.So if you loved the movie and/or the books then get this!It is fantastic and a must have!

Interesting, detailed, well illustrated, well put together.
"Gormenghast" on the small screen was never going to encompass every nuance and detail of Mervyn Peake's fantastic novels, however the BBC adaptation has brought an excellent impression of the trilogy to the smallscreen. The sets and costumes are amazing, the cast eminently suitable to take on the portrayal of this "other world". This book not only takes the reader through the production of this series in a detailed yet modest way, it also (appropriately) offers a history of the trilogy and Mervyn Peake. I think it is fascinating.