MR PYE
Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast trilogy is a tour de force admired world-wide. His short novel, Mr Pye, although less well known, is no less deserving of praise.
We are delighted to publish this definitive, limited edition, with the help and blessing of Mervyn’s surviving children; Fabian who has created the frontispiece for this edition, and Clare whose input into the introduction has been key.
Sark is one of the strangest and most beautiful of places in the western world and Mervyn Peake’s novel Mr Pye, which he set on Sark, is one of the strangest and most beautiful of novels.
Mervyn lived in Sark three times, first as a young man, then as a young father and finally as a convalescent.
Mervyn, his wife Maeve and their young children adored life on Sark and would have very happily stayed, but it proved impossible for him to make his living as an artist while so far from the mainland and they were forced to return to England. Back home, and broke, Mervyn sat down to write his way out of financial difficulty. The result was MR PYE.
The critics did not quite know to make of a book that defied classification and although the work was well received it was not the instant best seller he had hoped for. However, over the years it has become a much loved and greatly appreciated classic.
Ironically, while entirely set in Sark, Mr Pye was written entirely elsewhere. That said, it is apparent that Mervyn was completely there in spirit and missing the island very much indeed. The result was a hymn of praise to the most beautiful of all the Channel Islands.
And there she lay at full stretch upon the skyline, her attenuated and coruscated body reaching from north to south, the morning sunbeams playing along her spine and flickering upon the crests and ridges of her precipitous flanks.
Mr Pye, who had for the last fifteen minutes been staring fixedly at the approaching island, joined his hands together beneath his chin, turned his round face to the sky, closed his eyes, stood upon the tips of his toes, and breathed deeply.
‘It is just the right size,’ he murmured. ‘It will do very nicely.”
Mr Pye – Chapter One
The Times Literary Supplement of November 1953 thought the book “an oddity” and summed it up rather well
“Is it a fantasy? A story of the supernatural? A tract? Or just a joke? In any case it is highly entertaining and sometimes more.”
It is all that – and more, and a handsome addition to any library.
MR PYE THE DEFINITIVE EDITION
We have prepared this addition with the help and blessing of the artist Fabian Peake, Mervyn’s younger son, who has kindly created a unique frontispiece for the book, and the author Claire Penate, Mervyn’s daughter, who has been hugely generous in her work on the introduction.
In addition, we have sourced some of Mervyn’s work, including his painting of the Avenue in Sark, by kind permission of The Guernsey Museum and Art Gallery, pre-war images of the rail-less coupée (legend has Mervyn tearing across on his bicycle – without holding the handlebars) and other Sark images from Guernsey’s Priaulx Library.
The family have also let us access the original drafts of the novel which are held at the British Library. This has enabled us to reproduce some of Mervyn’s marginalia and sketches from the manuscript, his list of proposed titles, and published here, for the first time, his alternative ending to the story. This you will find at the end of your copy, sealed with a sticker, leaving each reader to decide if they wish to reveal it or not. The book is then elevated further with all 31 of Mervyn’s exquisitely simple line drawings that embellish the start of each chapter.
The endpapers for the cloth edition feature an antique map of Sark, taken from our own Cartographic History of the Channel Islands, this will be tipped into the Leather Edition and printed large format for the Exemplary Edition. The two hand bound editions will feature marble endpapers specially designed by master-marbler Freya Scott.
The cover design, drawn by hand by Guernsey artist Charlie Buchanan and laid out by Paul Harpin features a pair of wings on the covers with the title itself designed to be the body of their angel owner.
All of this has been beautifully typeset by the award-winning designer Paul Harpin in the Dove type, with generous margins and, at the end of the book, some stunning concrete poetry to complete the layout. Paul’s deep appreciation for the novel shines through his work.
THE SARK EDITION
Published in a limited edition of 150 copies and fully bound in sea blue cloth, blocked with the cover and spine design, with blue and white headbands and a blue ribbon, and with the endpapers taken from a vintage hand drawn map of Sark.
150 copies priced at £75 to subscribers
Shipping, packing, courier UK. £20 CI. £25 EU. £30 ROW. £40*
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THE LEATHER EDITION
Limited to 74 copies, fully bound, by hand, in midnight blue leather and blocked in antique white with the winged cover deign. The endpapers are of a specially commissioned, hand-made marble paper, designed to invoke the myriad blues of sea and the verdant greens of Sark, while the vintage map of the island is tipped into the book. The book is presented in a cloth covered slipcase, lined in contrasting blue and blocked with the title design.
74 copies priced at £345 to subscribers
Shipping, packing, courier UK. £20 CI. £25 EU. £30 ROW. £40*
THE EXEMPLARY EDITION
Limited to 26 hand-lettered copies, fully bound, by hand, in a contrasting midnight blue and cream leather bradel binding to best show off the cover design. The spine is blocked in midnight blue and the covers feature a unique three-dimensional wing design.
The book is presented in a cloth covered solander box, lined with a contrasting blue lining. A large format copy of the vintage map of Sark, numbered to match the book, will sit within the box.
26 lettered copies priced at £1450 to subscribers
Shipping, packing, courier UK. £30 CI. £30 EU. £45 ROW. £50*
*All these details are correct at the time of writing, however, small changes of detail may occur during the final printing and binding