The Wordsworth Trust

The warm welcome extended by the director and staff of the Wordsworth Trust at the talk at Dove Cottage on 30th August, was accompanied by the equally enthusiastic reception following the illustrated lecture of the life and work of Mervyn Peake. It was good to see that every seat was taken in the wonderfully modern and well-equipped specialist reading room where first editions of Coleridge and Wordsworth and others are held. Following my talk all the remaining hard cover copies of Mervyn Peake: The Man & His Art were sold as were copies of the Collected Poems.

It was also good to know that apart from being displayed regularly, the illustrations for The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner will be seen across the country when relevant exhibitions come up. They are currently on tour but will return to Dove Cottage later in the year when as previously indicated they can be viewed by those interested in the way my father saw, felt, and understood Coleridge's masterpiece.