Mervyn Peake was born in 1911 in China where his father was a medical missionary.

His education, begun at Tientsin Grammar School, continued in England at Eltham College in South East London. An aptitude for drawing led him to study at Croydon School of Art and the Royal Academy schools.

Subsequently he exhibited paintings, with considerable success, at various galleries, as well as teaching at the Westminster School of Art.

During the Second World War, whilst serving with the army, he established a reputation as a gifted book illustrator with his pictures for, among others, THE RIME OF THE ANCIENT MARINER, ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND and GRIMM'S HOUSEHOLD TALES.

TITUS GROAN was published in 1946, followed in 1950 by GORMENGHAST. The third volume of the Gormenghast saga, TITUS ALONE was published in 1959.

Among his other writings where several volumes of poetry, zany nonsense verse and stories such as RHYMES WITHOUT REASON and a number of plays.

He died in 1968.