Mervyn Peake
Sign in to saveAlso known as Mervyn Laurence Peake, Mervyn L. Peake, Mervyn Lawrence Peake
English author and illustrator (1911–1968)
Key facts
- Born
- Mervyn Laurence Peake , ( 1911-07-09 ) 9 July 1911, Kuling , Jiujiang , Qing China
- Died
- 17 November 1968 (1968-11-17) (aged 57), Burcot, Oxfordshire , England
- Education
- Eltham College ; Croydon School of Art ; Royal Academy Schools
- Occupations
- Writer, artist, poet, illustrator
- Notable work
- Gormenghast series
- Spouse
- Maeve Gilmore
- Relatives
- Jack Peñate (grandson)
via Wikipedia infobox
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Mervyn
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United Kingdom
- Place of birth
- Guling, Jiujiang
- Place of death
- Burcot
- Occupation
- painter
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Notable work
- Gormenghast trilogy
- Conflict
- World War II
- Military branch
- British Army
- Work location
- London
Show 9 more facts
- date of birth
- 1911-07-09
- date of death
- 1968-11-17
- medical condition
- Parkinson's disease
- Commons Creator page
- Mervyn Peake
- Commons category
- Mervyn Peake
- cause of death
- neurological disorder
- archives at
- British Library
- P12749
- Sainte-Croix
- manner of death
- natural causes
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
~22 min read
Encyclopedic overview
Mervyn Laurence Peake (9 July 1911 – 17 November 1968) was a British writer, artist, poet, and illustrator. He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books. The four works were part of what Peake conceived as a lengthy cycle, the completion of which was prevented by his death. They are sometimes compared to the work of his older contemporary J. R. R. Tolkien, but Peake's surreal fiction was influenced by his early love for Charles Dickens and Robert Louis Stevenson rather than Tolkien's studies of mythology and philology.
Peake also wrote poetry and literary nonsense in verse form, short stories for adults and children (Letters from a Lost Uncle, 1948), stage and radio plays, and Mr Pye (1953), a relatively tightly structured novel in which God implicitly mocks the evangelical pretensions and cosy world-view of the eponymous hero.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Mervyn Peake” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.