Art Gallery: The Worlds of Mervyn Peake

Best known for the Gormenghast Trilogy, Mervyn Peake, who died in 1968 and whose centenary is celebrated this year, was also an artist, an illustrator and a poet. As well as illustrating his own fiction (images 5-9), some of his finest drawings were for books by other authors. For grotesque satiric humour and Gothic sensibility he found a perfect match in Dickens, as his rather creepy illustrations for Bleak House beautifully attest.

For Carroll's Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland, he imagined a contemporary Alice who seemed younger and much livelier than Tenniel's prim Victorian miss (images 1-4).

Peake was also one of the first British civilians to witness Nazi atrocities: working as a war artist, he entered Bergen-Belsen in 1945 and produced several drawings of the dying inmates (image 10: illustrated letter to his wife). The experience left him with a profound sense of guilt for utilising such suffering in his work. His characterisation of Steerpike, the anti-hero in Gormenghast, is believed to have been influenced by the experience.

A British Library exhibition, The Worlds of Mervyn Peake, features material from its recently acquired Peake archive (including the drawings, sketches and letter below), whilst a new edition of Peake's classic trilogy contains over 100 illustrations, most of which were previously unpublished (there is also a Radio 4 serialisation). A new memoir, Under a Canvas Sky, by his daughter Clare is also published.

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• The Worlds of Mervyn Peake at the British Library until 18 September
• Visit the official Mervyn Peake website
• Find the Illustrated Gormenghast Trilogy by Mervyn Peake on Amazon
• Find Under a Canvas Sky by Clare Peake on Amazon