Sark honours Mervyn Peake

Friday 30 August 2019

The Bailiwick's ninth Blue Plaque, honouring the life of an important person in the islands' history and culture, is being unveiled in Sark today - to mark the time Mervyn Peake spent there.

Best remembered for his writing, in particular the Gormenghast books, the poet, illustrator and artist first went to Sark in 1932 on the invitation of his former English teacher, Eric Drake who was setting up an artist’s colony on the island.

A year later Peake left London and returned to Sark to join Drake’s colony – The Sark Group.

Alongside the other members of the Sark Group, Peake helped to build the ‘purpose built modernist gallery of pink and blue concrete’ and it was where he lived and worked in his studio. Peake also exhibited at The Gallery and was part of the opening exhibition on 30 August 1933.

By 1935 Peake had returned to London but he returned in 1946, after the Second World War, with his wife, the artist and writer Maeve Gilmore, and his two sons – Sebastian and Fabian. They lived in Le Chalet (now Clos de Vin) for five years, during which time his daughter Clare was born.

Gilmore later wrote "the years we spent on Sark were the most memorable of our life together".

Pictured: Maeve Gilmore. Image from Wikipedia - HERE. 

While in Sark, Peake wrote Gormenghast, the second of his Titus books and Letters from a Lost Uncle. He also wrote poetry and carried out a number of major commissions for book illustrations such as Treasure Island and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Sark also inspired his work, providing the backdrop for his later novel Mr Pye and is depicted in hundreds of his paintings and drawings, some of which are held at the Guernsey Museum.

Mr Pye went on to be made into a TV series starring Derek Jacobi. 

While isolation in Sark proved ideal for working as a writer and artist it was not conducive to making contacts or getting commissions so Peake and his family left the island in 1949. In 1956 Peake returned to write the third Titus book Titus Alone and a year later he took the family to Sark for their last summer holiday on the island which he loved.

The Gormenghast novels attained cult status during the late 1960s and have since been translated into more than twenty languages and have never been out of print. His paintings are included in the collections of the National Portrait Gallery and the Imperial War Museum.

The Peake family have given their blessing to the Blue Plaque, which will be up at The Gallery Stores.

It is the Bailiwick's ninth Blue Plaque, put up by Guernsey Museum which runs the scheme to recognise those 'who have made an important contribution to the Bailiwick and the wider world'.

'The Scheme aims to enhance the awareness of islanders and visitors about these special people and where they lived or worked', said Guernsey Museums ahead of the unveiling. 

The plaque was to be unveiled by the Seigneur on Friday 30 August at noon and will then be available for public viewing. 

Pictured top: Mervyn Peake and Sark.