Mervyn Peake was an English modernist writer and artist, best known for his Gormenghast novels. These stories follow the protagonist Titus Groan from cradle to grave, though they were originally conceived as part of a longer cycle. Peake's surreal style, influenced by Dickens and Stevenson, diverges from traditional fantasy. Beyond novels, he also penned poetry, short stories, and plays, though he achieved little commercial success during his lifetime.
Mervyn Peake (1911-68) is one of the great English nonsense poets, in the tradition of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. His verses lead the reader into places where cause is cut free of effect and language takes on a giddy life of its own. This title contains the poems and illustrations previously published in Peake's Book of Nonsense (1972).