Mervyn Peake is another of our great writer-illustrators. Today he’s best remembered for his three dark, gothic Gormenghast fantasy novels. I thoroughly enjoyed both “Titus Groan” and “Gormenghast”, the first two novels of the series, although I really couldn’t get on with “Titus Alone”, the final novel of the series. However, focusing on Mervyn Peake as an illustrator, I’ve chosen to copy one of his brilliant illustrations for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island.
Mervyn Peake was actually born in China, of British parents, although he left China never to return when he was 11 years old. He trained as an artist in the Royal Academy Schools, but by his early 20s he was already writing poetry as well as painting. In a varied career, Peake actually designed the logo for Pan Books, a popular paperback imprint. The story goes that he was offered the choice of either a flat fee or a royalty of a farthing (1/4 of an old penny) per book, and on the advice of Graham Greene turned down the royalty and thus lost a small fortune. Peake was a lifelong lover of the work of Robert Louis Stevenson, and his illustrations for Treasure Island are, in my opinion, among the finest ever made of a book which has always been a favourite of mine as well. It took ages to make this copy. Peake’s style in this illustration eschews long continuous lines – apart from in the shading of the background.
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