Biography

Maeve Gilmore was born in south London, the sixth and youngest child of an Irish medical doctor and his English wife. Maeve's father's practice was at Acre Lane, Brixton, where the owners of houses in the then affluent middle-class area each had an acre of land. At an early age Maeve was sent away to a Catholic convent at St Leonards in Sussex where she excelled at languages and art. At sixteen she was sent away again, this time to a Swiss finishing school where she learned German and fell in love with Beethoven and Bach. Later, she would regularly play on the family piano to her own delighted family.

On the very first day of studies at the Westminster School of Art, Maeve met the tutor Mervyn Peake and the two fell in love and later married. She continued painting throughout her marriage, encouraged always by her husband. After his death in November 1968 she wrote the best-seller, A World Away, which tells the poignant story of their happiness before Parkinson's disease affected his every move and led to an early death.

Maeve Gilmore was a totally committed champion of her husband's work, and paid for her all-consuming support of his art, herself succumbing to a premature end. Her conclusion to Mervyn Peake's trilogy, which she called Titus Awakes, will be launched at the gallery on the 9th of July.

As part of the Hendrick's Lecture Series, Sebastian Peake will
be giving a lecture about his parents' lives on the 20th of July at 7pm.
Tickets are £7. See The Hendrick's Lecture Series site for more information.