An Excellence of Peake
The last novel of the sequence, Titus Alone, had indeed contained structural weaknesses which we had all assumed were Mervyn’s as his control of his work became shaky. Then, one afternoon, Langdon Jones, composer of a superb musical setting for Peake’s narrative poem of the Blitz, The Rhyme of the Flying Bomb, was leafing through the manuscript books of the novel, which Maeve Peake had shown him, when he realised that much of what was missing from the published book was actually in the manuscript. Checking further, he found that the book had been very badly edited by a third party, and whole characters and scenes cut.
Jones began to check handwritten manuscript (mostly done in huge ledgers and randomly dotted with drawings) against typed pages and the final typed manuscript, slowly restoring the book to its present much improved state. It took him over a year. He was never professionally paid for the work. We suggested to the original publisher that they should now republish the book, perhaps with the new text. Not only did they not want to publish any of the books, they were anxious to hide the fact that the last book had been so badly butchered. They became distinctly negative about the whole thing. I proposed to Maeve that we begin the process of getting back the rights. Meanwhile Mervyn became increasingly unwell.
Oliver said mysteriously that he was hoping to get a new job, which might make things a bit easier. And then one morning he phoned me to tell me, with considerable glee, that he was now ‘the guy who picks the Penguins’. And, of course, our first action must be to sort out the Gormenghast books and decide how to get them back into print.
Needless to say, the moment Oliver showed interest from Penguin, the original publisher saw a new value in the books. They were happy to lease the rights to Penguin. They were still very reluctant to do a new edition of Titus Alone, however. Eventually the whole production was taken over by Oliver, who proposed illustrating the novels from Mervyn’s own notebook drawings of his characters. He had the authority and experience to get what he wanted. The text was restored. The new, beautiful hardbacks were bound versions of the characteristic Penguin editions prepared by Jones. Anthony Burgess gladly contributed an introduction to Titus Groan, which he believed to be a masterpiece, and Oliver Caldecott brought the three volumes out as Penguin Modern Classics. It was the perfect way to publish the books, boldly, enthusiastically and unapologetically, in the best possible editions Mervyn could have.
Next, with the considerable help of my ex-wife, Hilary Bailey, Maeve Peake was persuaded to write her wonderful memoir of Mervyn, A World Away, which Giles Gordon, another Peake fan, then at Gollancz, was delighted to publish (‘the most touching book I’ve ever read’, he said.) Monitor began production of their rather Gothic TV programme on him. Peake was getting a new, appreciative public. Too late, unfortunately, for him to realise it. I remember going with Maeve to take him some of the publicity done for the new editions, to show him that his books were to be published again, what they would look like. He nodded blankly, mumbled something and dropped his eyes. It was almost as if he could not himself bear the irony. Maeve and his children had to deal with many similar moments.
