Mervyn Peake (1911-1968)

Mervyn Peake's wife, Maeve Gilmour, thought that this publication was the most beautiful of all the books that Peake illustrated and indeed the writer and poet Walter de la Mare commented "most other illustrated books for children look just silly by comparison". In December, 1940 the Times Literary Supplement concluded that "The pretty maid and her questioner have a satirical air of Thackeray".

Christie's are grateful to Sebastian Peake for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.