The Tower of Flints: Mervyn Peake's Fantastical Imagination discussion

SARK AND MERVYN PEAKE

The island's stunning scenery was an inspiration to Mervyn Peake

Step back in time as Inside Out visits Sark, the smallest of the Channel Islands and home to writer and artist Mervyn Peake in the 1930s.

A link to a short BBC local news story about Peake's time on Sark.

Have you been to Sark?

I gather the landscape described in Mr Pye is very accurate, but that the artists colony where Peake lived his first time there is now a post office. I'm not so sure about the house where Clare was born.

No, I've always wanted to, but never got here. Perhaps one day...

You've said in another post that you might get the chance to go to Sark in a couple of weeks; if you do make it, I'd love to hear your impressions, if you don't mind sharing them here :-)

If I go, it'll only be for a few hours, but yes, I'll report back.

A flying visit, then, if it happens! Hopefully you'll get the chance to take in some impressions, at least.

Well, we'll be spending a long weekend in Guernsey, so planned to visit Sark on one day. But there's just one ferry there and one back each day - and therefore it's not cheap, but often fully booked. And it is now booked.

We visited Jersey a few years ago (well, 19 years ago!) and I had an idea to go to Sark, but my wife was heavily pregnant at the time and didn't fancy the ferry trip, which was fair enough. We satisfied my literary pretentions with a trip to Gerald Durrell's Jersey Zoo instead.

I hope you get good weather and a calm sea for your visit. :-)

Happy long-term relationships usually require such compromises. I hope you both enjoyed Durrelling at the zoo.

The zoo was great :-)

We went to Sark for the day on Tuesday. Superb weather, but although the natural landscape is stunning and unspoilt, the village centre, including the former artists' colony where Peake lived for a couple of years (now the Post Office) is not that inspiring. What shocked me most was how little mention of Peake there was, especially considering Mr Pye was filmed there in relatively recent memory (though I didn't hugely enjoy it).

The main route through the village is more appealing in a painting by Peake that we saw in a gallery on Guernsey than in real life now: it's mostly wooden buildings of an almost temporary nature, though the stones houses further out were nicer.

Definitely worth a visit, but with hindsight, we should have hired bikes, as the walk to Little Sark was further and longer than we allowed for, so we didn't get down to Dixcart Bay. Lovely, but with only one ferry back that afternoon, we were conscious of the time - but we still made it back via La Seigneurie.

Thanks for sharing your experience, Cecily. I'll get there one day!

It is very surprising that Peake isn't much in evidence. Perhaps, in line with the islanders antipathy towards the car, they don't want to attract too many tourists, which might spoil the island?

No, they want more tourists, but are being hampered by the Barclay brothers. At least, that's what local campaigners say; others won't say anything on the matter.

As requested, here are a few pics I took:

La Coupée, from Sark, looking to Little Sark:


Grande Greve, Little Sark, from La Coupée:


Bluebells and other wild flowers:


Weird hybrid architecture of La Seigneurie:


Peake's painting of The Avenue, currently on display in the Guernsey museum and art gallery:

The way the village looks now is not nearly as appealing as Peake's pictures. Here are a few:

Shops/sheds in The Avenue:


Village centre:


The artists' colony, where Peake lived for two years (now post office and shop):

Thanks for sharing your photos, Cecily :-)

It looks how I remember it from the TV series, though that was filmed 30-40 years after Peake was there, so I suspect some changes will have taken place. It looks so peaceful and (if it's not too condescending) quaint.

Yes, peaceful and quaint, though it's well before peak(e) season.

:-D