They left the wall, and watched as suitcases, provisions and all the sundry necessities of island life were unloaded. The man, tall, dark, urgent, hoisted the little girl on his back.
Titus had reached an anchorage. He knew that his past and his future, his whole being, his reason, were here.
As he began to walk away from the jetty, through the small tunnel hacked out of the rock, he was joined by the man and his children. Together they made their way up the steep hill. Titus no longer felt alone, but a part of someone who would shape his life to come. There’s not a road, not a track, but it will lead him home.
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Published by Vintage 2011
Copyright © Maeve Gilmore and Mervyn Peake 2011
Introduction copyright © Brian Sibley 2011
Maeve Gilmore and Mervyn Peake have asserted their right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work
‘How fly the birds of Heaven save by their wings?’ from A Book of Nonsense (Peter Owen, 1972) reproduced by kind permission of Peter Owen. see here
‘Linger now with me’ lines from Titus Groan reproduced by permission of Random House Publishing Ltd. see here
‘The sunlight falls upon the grass’ from Rhymes Without Reason (Eyre & Spottiswoode 1944). Reproduced by kind permission of the Estate of Mervyn Peake. see here
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EPUB ISBN 9781409041733