The Mervyn Peake Awards

The idea of an annual award to celebrate the work of Mervyn Peake, who suffered from Parkinson's disease, was given the go-ahead in 2001 by the then chief executive of the Parkinson's Disease Society. Despite the severe constrictions limiting his own work, my father continued working on commissions so the idea was to encourage others to emulate his bravery. There are three categories; art, photography, and poetry, with the winner in each section recognised with a prize, an exhibition, and press write-ups. The winner in the 2007 art section was Charlotte Johnson-Wahl, Boris Johnson's mother, who produced an evocative and highly original painting of a busy London street scene.