Peake's Progress

A combination of short stories and poetry from Peake's Progress, including the epic Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, a selection of his nonsense verse, and some of the poems that resulted from his visit to Belsen, a German concentration camp. The short stories were all written after the war and reveal his mastery of this difficult genre.

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Mervyn Peake (1911-1968) was a prolific and astonishingly original writer and artist, who touched at one time or another on almost every literary form. Peake's Progress (the book, ISBN 9780712358347) is a selection, compiled by his widow, Maeve Gilmore, from every period of his work as a writer and draughtsman. It contains a remarkable work from childhood, 'The White Chief of the Umzimbooboo Kaffirs', the early 'Mr. Slaughterboard', which foreshadows the 'Titus' books, two plays, 'The Wit to Woo' and 'Noah's Ark', a broadcast version of 'Mr Pye', and a generous selection of Peake's short stories, poems and nonsense verses as well as his drawings. Including a new preface written by Mervyn Peake's son, Sebastian, this edition of Peake's Progress is published to coincide with the centenary of Peake's birth, and to mark the British Library's acquisition of Peake's archives. The double CD set that accompanies the book has been specially recorded by the British Library and is read by Mervyn's sons Sebastian and Fabian. It features a selection of the short stories and poems included in the book.