Product Description

The result of twenty-five years research into the life and work of Mervyn Peake, this is, moreover, the first biography authorised by the Mervyn Peake Estate. Now in paperback, this fully revised and updated edition also contains a huge range of illustrations and Peake memorabilia that has been unearthed by the family. Vast Alchemies promises to be the definitive work on one of the world's most memorable writers.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #255385 in Books
• Published on: 2009-09-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 314 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Reading this biography of Mervyn Peake one is left with undiluted admiration for his seemingly boundless creativity. Best known for his Gormenghast trilogy, which has now been introduced to a wider audience with the BBC's all-star television adaptation, Peake made his name as a painter first, one of the outstanding talents of his generation, and was also prodigious in his output in other media, notably his poetry and wonderfully interpreted illustrations of classics such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

G Peter Winnington, who has previously edited the Mervyn Peake Review and Peake Studies together with revised editions of the Gormenghast trilogy, is both a sympathetic and astute guide to the life and works of a remarkable talent. His considered appreciation offers much intriguing insight into the imagination of the man and the creative processes that brought forth such extraordinary creations, particularly Titus Groan, the first of the Gormenghast books. Peake comes across as a wonderful man--vivacious, considerate and humorous--as the book recounts his life from a childhood in China as the son of a missionary, through the development of his own distinctly idiosyncratic style on the Channel island of Sark to his years of marriage and fatherhood in London. In later life a degenerative illness prevented him from working and led eventually to a premature death, though the book doesn't dwell too long on this more tragic element which has been the focus of some previous accounts.

This will be a fascinating read for fans of Peake's work and particularly for those who are interested in the act of artistic creation, but one feels that there may yet be a book to come that will more completely capture Peake's life and character, if, as seems likely, his reputation continues to grow. In part this is owing to the fact that Winnington has not been afforded permission to use all the material he would have liked to, but more noticeably, there are loose ends which leave the man shrouded in mystery, most notably when we are told, without any further comment, that there is little doubt he had at least one extramarital affair. Still, this is a fluent and highly readable book that is sure to enhance Peake's standing as one of the jewels of 20th-century British culture. --Alisdair Bowles

Review
By far the best biography I've read of Peake and closest to the reality that I perceived --Michael Moorcock

G Peter Winnington may well know more about Peake than anyone else --The Independent

As a study in artistic development it succeeds very well in recreating the world in which Peake moved --The Spectator

G Peter Winnington may well know more about Peake than anyone else --The Independent

As a study in artistic development it succeeds very well in recreating the world in which Peake moved --The Spectator

Jeff Bursey at amazon.com
A very readable biography, an overdue contribution to Peake scholarship, accessible and interesting to those unfamiliar and familiar with [Peake]