A Child of Bliss - Growing Up with Mervyn Peake

Sebastian Peake was born into one of the most talented families of British literature. His father was Mervyn Peake, creator of the Gormanshast trilogy, unparalleled in its dark, gothic imagination; draughtsman, with a gift which approached Goya and Redon; and official war artist, both at the liberation of Belsen and at the execution of Nazi war criminals. Such a household was far from humdrum. Sebastian accepted as usual the visits of diverse literary figures from Graham Greene to Quentin Crisp. He allows us an unprivileged insight into Peake's artistry, both as a writer and painter, and records the conversations he had during his childhood and adolescence with a parent whose creative talent was irrepressible and whose personality was sometimes hard to fathom. Never more moving than when it describes Sebastian's relationshop with his dying father, this book is a very personal investigation of the pleasures and pressures of being the child of a great talent...