Michael Wood in The London Review of Books

In the current edition of The London Review of Books, Michael Wood reviews several new editions which have appeared recently. These include The Illustrated Gormenghast, Peake's Progress, A Book of Nonsense and others. The reviewer seems particularly struck by Boy in Darkness which he sees as anticipating much of what will be later inhabit the world of Gormenghast.

'Although the boy (in the story) is not named', Wood writes, 'it is normally assumed to be Titus Groan because he has run away from a castle, the site of much senseless and ancient ritual'. In a highly perceptive article, Wood brings the disparate artistic canvas that is now accepted as the wider art of Mervyn Peake, into as near to homogeneity as is possible in a review of three thousand words. In his section of my mother's Titus Awakes; not so much 'a continuation' more a homage to both the eponymous magnum opus and the man she loved, Wood writes glowingly and with real insight. 'A childhood in Gormenghast will render a person incapable of distinguishing freedom from anarchy. This is precisely what (Gilmore) captures so well in Titus Awakes.'