An Interview with Mervyn Peake's Children in the Daily Telegraph

Four Peaklets

A fortnight ago I went to the Battersea flat of Clare Penate (Mervyn Peake's daughter, and incidentally, mother of singer Jack Penate; she also, marvellously, has a son called Titus, after Titus Groan, the hero of her father's books), to meet the three Peake children, Sebastian, Fabian, and Clare and talk about publication of Titus Awakes (written by Maeve Gilmore, Mervyn's wife), and the other events of this centenary year of Peake's birth, as well as growing up with two furiously imaginative and artistic parents. Clare has also written a lovely memoir about her early years, called Under a Canvas Sky. It was a very exciting day. Mervyn Peake had a huge impact on my adolescent imagination; so much so that I called a minor character in my first book, The Other Book, Peake. (The other two were Murdoch and Munro, after Iris Murdoch and Saki, 'H H Munro'.) Peakeiana was everywhere; I even held three first editions of the Gormenghast books. The resulting interview is printed in the Telegraph today; alternatively you can read it HERE.