Today’s Independent has a long piece by Michael Moorcock on Mervyn Peake. If it reads oddly it is because (as they tell you at the end) it is an abridged version of Moorcock’s introduction to a new book, Mervyn Peake: The Man and His Art compiled by Sebastian Peake and Alison Eldred, edited by Peter Winnington. Once you know that the article makes a lot more sense, and it may well leave you wanting more. Which makes it a shame that the book is so expensive. Possible Winington’s own book, The Voice of the Heart: The Working of Mervyn Peake’s Imagination, which Liverpool University Press has available in paperback, would be a better bet.
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Delighted to have you notice the two new books on Peake. The one for which Moorcock provided the introduction contains some 300 reproductions of Peake’s paintings, drawings and illustrations, in full colour, so it’s quite a bargain at £35. The other, on the working of Peake’s imagination, is only £18.50 in paperback; the 50 illustrations are in black-and-white only.
Ah, right. Color illustrations always make a difference. Thanks for letter us know, Peter.