G Peter Winnington, who has previously edited the Mervyn Peake Review and Peake Studies together with revised editions of the Gormenghast trilogy, is both a sympathetic and astute guide to the life and works of a remarkable talent. His considered appreciation offers much intriguing insight into the imagination of the man and the creative processes that brought forth such extraordinary creations, particularly Titus Groan, the first of the Gormenghast books. Peake comes across as a wonderful man--vivacious, considerate and humorous--as the book recounts his life from a childhood in China as the son of a missionary, through the development of his own distinctly idiosyncratic style on the Channel island of Sark to his years of marriage and fatherhood in London. In later life a degenerative illness prevented him from working and led eventually to a premature death, though the book doesn't dwell too long on this more tragic element which has been the focus of some previous accounts.

This will be a fascinating read for fans of Peake's work and particularly for those who are interested in the act of artistic creation, but one feels that there may yet be a book to come that will more completely capture Peake's life and character, if, as seems likely, his reputation continues to grow. In part this is owing to the fact that Winnington has not been afforded permission to use all the material he would have liked to, but more noticeably, there are loose ends which leave the man shrouded in mystery, most notably when we are told, without any further comment, that there is little doubt he had at least one extramarital affair. Still, this is a fluent and highly readable book that is sure to enhance Peake's standing as one of the jewels of 20th-century British culture. --Alisdair Bowles

Joe Sanders in Science Fiction Studies #85 (Nov.2001)
Written with respect for its subject, Vast Alchemies is now the essential source for factual information about Peake's life.

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