This is the third (and first ebook) edition of Peter Winnington’s acclaimed biography of Mervyn Peake (1911→68). It was first published as Vast Alchemies in 2000, at the time when the BBC was broadcasting its dramatization of Peake’s Titus Groan and Gormenghast. In 2009 it was republished by Peter Owen as Mervyn Peake’s Vast Alchemies, in a revised and enlarged paperback edition. The text of this ebook edition has been thoroughly revised, with a fresh selection of illustrations.

Peter Winnington recounts Peake’s life from his birth in China, through his student years in England and a stay in an artists’ colony on Sark, followed by his marriage and his frustrating years as a conscripted soldier when he wished to be a war artist. Yet the 1940s, marked by a visit to the newly liberated camp at Bergen-Belsen in 1945, were his most productive years. From the middle of the 1950s, Parkinson’s disease gradually robbed him of his ability to write, paint, or draw, and caused his premature death in 1968.

Peake wrote three novels and a novella about the life of Titus Groan and his childhood in the city-sized – but almost deserted – castle of Gormenghast (whose name, along with that of the villain, Steerpike, has become a by-word of English literature). He produced more than 250 poems, over a dozen plays, and illustrated many books; his Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Alice in Wonderland and Treasure Island are among his most famous achievements.

From reviews

‘Peter Winnington is good not only as a biographer but as a critic on such matters as the physical rather than the purely visual qualities of Peake’s imagination.’ – Times Literary Supplement

‘Peter Winnington could well know more about Peake’s life than anyone else – the most reliable biography.’ – Duncan Fallowell, Independent

‘Few books uncover the creative processes as well as this one . . . Indispensable.’ – Birmingham Post

‘Written with mastery of facts and with respect for its subject, Vast Alchemies is now the essential source for factual information about Peake’s life.’ – Science Fiction Studies

‘Peter Winnington has written a sensitive biography which rightly concentrates on Peake’s effervescent creativity . . .’ – Robert Macfarlane, The Tablet

‘It is Winnington’s book that most successfully enables the reader to appreciate the extraordinary  imagination and energy of my father.’ — Sebastian Peake

About the author
Among Peter Winnington’s other books are Walter Fuller: the Man Who Had Ideas (Letterworth, 2014), Harriet Martineau, Miss J, and Ellen McKee (Letterworth, 2019), and Love in the Revolution (Letterworth 2020). He has also written a study of Peake's prose, poetry and plays, The Voice of the Heart (2009), and edited books and a periodical devoted to Peake. For his other publications see his website.

Published in April 2021, with more than 60 illustrations, many of them in colour.
Price: £10.99, US$14.99, euro 12.99 ISBN 978-2-9701307-2-7