Monday, January 18, 2010

Gormenghast Sequel Due

Here's an article from The Guardian: Gormenghast Sequel Due, Completed By Mervyn Peake's Widow. An excerpt:

More than 40 years after its author Mervyn Peake died, the story of the lord of Gormenghast Titus Groan is set to continue following the discovery of a fourth book in the series completed by his wife.

Peake died in 1968, leaving behind him three Gormenghast novels and the start of a fourth, provisionally titled Titus Awakes. His wife, the writer and artist Maeve Gilmore, began writing the book in 1970 but her completed manuscript was only recently discovered by their granddaughter. Digging through boxes which had been in the attic, she found four exercise books in his mother's handwriting and realised what they were.

"It came as quite a revelation," said Sebastian Peake, Mervyn's son. "When I was reading it for the first time a few weeks ago, it gave me a real kick in the solar plexus ... It's highly poignant."

This brings up an interesting issue. How do you feel about other writers continuing the works of incapacitated authors? I bring up not only Mervyn Peake, but Douglas Adams (Eoin Colfer has taken up the cudgels), J.R.R. Tolkien (his son, Christopher), Robert Jordan (Brandon Sanderson), and Terry Pratchett (he hasn't passed away yet, but my thoughts to him because of his Alzheimer's, which means someone else may try to write stories based on his). Is this all right with you, granted that all legal obstacles are cleared?

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