The first of the books included in Mervyn Peake: Two Lives is the wonderful memoir written by his wife, Maeve Gilmore. The couple met when she was 17, when she thought he was the most romantic man she'd ever seen, and married when she was 19 (no wonder I identified with her!). For a brief period they worked side by side as artists, but the war interrupted and Peake was called up. Gilmore movingly tells of the war years and the horrors Peake saw in Belsen, and then of the dreadful struggle through the 1960s with artistic disappointment and illness. It's a radiant portrait of a loving marriage and has been an inspiration to me all my adult life.

It continues with Sebastian Peake's memoir of his childhood including the golden years spent on the island of Sark. Both books are illustrated throughout with line drawings by Mervyn Peake and a series of 24 photographs. ( )