Mervyn Peake, Limited Editions, Children’s Books, Gormenghast, Mr Pye, Poems


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The Gormenghast trilogy and Mr Pye are Peake’s four novels, published here for the first time with their full range of illustrations as well as decorative marginalia taken from the manuscripts.

Letters from a Lost Uncle and Captain Slaughterboard Drops Anchor are two books Peake wrote and illustrated for children. Presented afresh by Libanus Press and printed in four and two colours respectively.

Poems is a collection of Peake’s published verses, reproduced chronologically by volume up to and including Collected Poems (2008) edited by Rob Maslen. Where Peake provided illustrations we have included them. Where not we have added appropriate images from the archive. This is the most comprehensive single-volume collection to date.

Labyrinth is a new titlecomprising the short stories previously published in Boy in Darkness (2007) with the addition of ‘Mr Slaughterboard’ and ‘Touch ‘O The Ash’ from Peake’s Progress (1981). The title is taken from an episode in Gormenghast which struck Peake so forcibly that he illuminated the MS with a burst of labyrinth-themed drawings and even a potential cover illustration. It was as if he was contemplating an entirely new book – and so, with the Peake Estate’s permission, we have taken the liberty.

In Umbra is another new title, a biographically-arranged compilation that combines familiar pieces from Peake’s Progress with unseen or little-known items from the archive. It starts with Peake’s first published work, an illustrated piece written in 1922 for a missionary magazine, and ends with ‘Foot-Fruit’, a verse/narrative that is believed to be his last creative work. In between there are sections containing illustrations from the unpublished ‘Moccus Book’ of 1929; a selection of his work as a war artist; a section devoted to the Gormenghast trilogy that includes the original title pages, drawings of discarded characters, sets for an abortive Gormenghast opera, and glimpses of future Titus adventures; plus an abbreviated short story ‘Johnny Butterfield’. As with Labyrinth the title is influenced by the MS: Peake’s working title for Gormenghast was ‘Titus In Umbra.’ We thought the abbreviation In Umbra was an apt description of these fragments which have hitherto been overshadowed by Peake’s more famous works.

The Sunday Books. At weekends, while the family lived on Sark, Peake would tell stories to his sons Sebastian and Fabian. With each story he painted a picture in their notebooks. The stories are, alas, forgotten but the pictures are reproduced here in full colour with an introduction by Fabian Peake. As distinct from the recent ‘Sunday Books’ written by Michael Moorcock

The books are available in two bindings: a fine binding set and a set of cloth bindings.