In the entirely different genre of Gothic fantasy Mervyn Peake ( 1911 – 68 ) published his highly successful Gormenghast trilogy between 1946 and 1959.

An earlier example, and possibly the first true fantasy of manners, is the Gormenghast series ( specifically the first two books ) by Mervyn Peake.

Fuchsia is a dreamer and a romantic, who escapes the dull pace of life in Gormenghast by reading fantasy tales.

The impact that his books, combined with the success of several other series such as C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia, Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series and Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, helped cement the genre's popularity and gave birth to the current wave of fantasy literature.

Gormenghast trilogy is a very, very great work ... a classic of our age.

In 1969 Sting read the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake and became a passionate fan.

Much of the material derived from Tim Finn's and Phil Judd's fascination with the work of English writer and artist Mervyn Peake – notably Spellbound, the track " Stranger Than Fiction " ( their concert centrepiece ) and " Titus ", named after the hero of Peake's Gormenghast trilogy.

" " Gormenghast " is the name of the sprawling, crumbling fortress from Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast trilogy.

McIntosh is probably best known for her portrayals of Beryl Stapleton in the 2002 BBC version of The Hound of the Baskervilles, and of Fuchsia in the 2000 BBC and WGBH Boston production of Gormenghast, a lavish miniseries based on the first two books of the trilogy by Mervyn Peake.

In 2000, the BBC and the PBS station WGBH of Boston produced a miniseries for television, titled Gormenghast, based on the first two books of the trilogy.

He is best known for what are usually referred to as the Gormenghast books.

It is also likely that his early exposure to the contrasts between the lives of the Europeans, and of the Chinese, and between the poor and the wealthy in China also exerted an influence on the Gormenghast books.

The song " The Drowning Man ", by British band The Cure, is inspired by events in Gormenghast, and the song " Lady Fuchsia " by another British band, Strawbs, is also based on events in the novels.

* The novel Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake, best known for the Gormenghast series, is set on Sark.

Gormenghast is less focused on a central protagonist than many novels.

Gormenghast is a remote and reclusive earldom dominated by the huge Castle Gormenghast at its centre, and ruled by the noble family of Groan since time immemorial.

The kingdom derives its name from Gormenghast Mountain, and is isolated from the outside world by inhospitable regions on each side of it.

Gormenghast Mountain is said to be so large that from the castle it looks at most a few miles distant, whereas in fact it is a day's ride away on horseback.

Given that it is surrounded on three sides by watery regions, it is not implausible that the entire region can be flooded, as described in the second book Gormenghast.

Otherwise, the impression given is that Gormenghast is stagnant, insular, and introspective.

Gormenghast makes a stark contrast with the industrious and technologically advanced city which is the setting of Titus Alone.

His desire for freedom is awakened by the sight of his foster sister, known only as " The Thing ", a feral child who lives in the woods of Gormenghast ( due to her mother being banished as an outcast ) and who terrorizes the Bright Carvers, the inhabitants of the mud dwellings outside the castle walls.

He is eventually exiled from Gormenghast for throwing one of the Countess's cats at Steerpike.

He is the one who coordinates the various arcane rituals that make up daily life in Gormenghast.

He is a consummate misanthrope who abuses and insults everybody he meets, and who cares only for the rigid application of the laws and traditions of Gormenghast.

Due to her illegitimacy she is an outcast who becomes a feral child living in the wilderness surrounding Gormenghast.

Believing that she is in every way the opposite of Gormenghast, Titus becomes infatuated with her.

Ironically it is only Steerpike, the power hungry, psychopathic and devious rebel, who shares Titus ' contempt for the rules and traditions of Gormenghast.

He finished Titus Groan and Gormenghast and completed some of his most acclaimed illustrations for books by other authors, including Lewis Carroll's Hunting of the Snark ( for which he was reportedly paid only £ 5 ) and Alice in Wonderland, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the Brothers Grimm's Household Tales, All This and Bevin Too by Quentin Crisp and Robert Louis Stevenson's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, as well as producing many original poems, drawings, and paintings.

In 1984, BBC Radio 4 broadcast two 90-minute plays based on Titus Groan and Gormenghast, adapted by Brian Sibley and starring Sting as Steerpike and Freddie Jones as the Artist ( narrator ).

A minimalist stage version of Gormenghast performed by the David Glass Ensemble was adapted by John Constable and directed by David Glass.

* Titus Groan, Gormenghast, and Titus Alone ( by himself ; several editions include an abundance of illustrations, on plates in the center and / or distributed through the text )

The Gormenghast series comprises three novels by Mervyn Peake, originally published between 1946 and 1959.

A novella, Boy in Darkness ( 1956 ), tells the story of a brief adventure by the young Titus away from Gormenghast, although it does not explicitly name the castle.

The Peake family rediscovered this novel at the end of 2009 and it was published by Overlook Press as Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast.

The immense awareness of Tradition in the novel, manifest in the Ritual that dominates and suffocates all life within its walls is personified by Sepulchrave, the 76th Earl of Groan and Titus's father, whose days are almost wholly consumed adhering to the obscure and esoteric tenets of Gormenghast tradition.

Titus ' dread and rebellion against the iron letter of Gormenghast Law ( enforced and embodied in his lifetime by the stony and loathsome dwarf Barquentine ) becomes one of the main factors leading to his preoccupation with freedom.

* November 17 – Mervyn Peake, Gormenghast author

The author has written in an interview: he castle of Gormenghast was an " unconscious influence " on both Orison and Revelstone.

* Gormenghast author Mervyn Peake, after whom the library is named

Mervyn Peake never returned to China but it has been noted that Chinese influences can be detected in Peake's works, not least in the castle of Gormenghast itself, which in some respects echoes the ancient walled city of Peking ( Beijing ) as well as the enclosed compound where he grew up in Tientsin ( Tianjin ).

One of his last screen appearances was in the BBC dramatisation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, and he was ( almost inevitably ) noted as an ad-libber.

In 2000 Sykes appeared as Mollocks, the servant of Dr Prunesquallor, in the BBC's mini-series adaptation of Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast, which was the last production to feature both Milligan and Sykes ( although they did not appear together on screen ).

* Mervyn Peake-Titus Groan, first of the Gormenghast series.

Other features quickly followed and, in 1981, he co-wrote ( with Michael Bakewell ) BBC Radio 4's adaptation of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and has also adapted C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia and Mervyn Peake's Titus Groan and Gormenghast for Radio 4, for which he received a Sony Radio Award in 1985.

* Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series

# Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake

* Mervyn Peake's 1959 novel Titus Alone of the Gormenghast series features a poor, displaced, underground society who live in an area known as the " Under River ".

Schmidt has recorded a few solo albums and written an opera based on Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast.

This extravagant treatment of everyday events can be found in the work of earlier authors, such as Mikhail Bulgakov's The Master and Margarita, Harry Stephen Keeler's meganovels such as The Box from Japan, and Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast novels.

Gormenghast, by Mervyn Peake, is the second novel in his Gormenghast series.

In 1992, Overlook Press ( the American publishers of the Gormenghast series ) printed at the end of Titus Alone the extant coherent portions of Mervyn Peake's Titus Awakes, with a brief introduction by John Watney.

The book was published by Overlook Press as Titus Awakes: The Lost Book of Gormenghast in June 2011 to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Mervyn Peake's birth.