It is forty years since the death of Mervyn Peake (1911-68), the author of the much-loved "Gormenghast" novels. To mark the anniversary this first comprehensive edition of Peake's poetry is published. Of the more than 230 poems in the collection, over 80 are printed for the first time. Peake emerges as a compelling poet, with an acute sense of his responsibilities as an artist, passionately engaged with current events, from unemployment in the 1930s to the horrors of the London Blitz and the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. He is also a fine love-poet and a sensitive observer of the human form. Readers who love the world of Peake's novels, and those who are new to his work, will discover here one of the great originals of the twentieth century.