Editing Mervyn Peake (section)

===Enlistment===
[[File:Glass-blowers 'Gathering' from the Furnace. (1943) (Art.IWM ART LD 2851).jpg|thumb|''Glass-blowers "Gathering" from the Furnace'' (1943) (Art.IWM ART LD 2851)]]
At the outbreak of [[World War II]], he applied to become a [[war artist]], for he was keen to put his skills at the service of his country. He imagined ''An Exhibition by the Artist, Adolf Hitler'', in which horrific images of war with ironic titles were offered as "artworks" by the Nazi leader.<ref name=EJWmp>{{cite web |first=Eleanor Johnson |last=Ward|url=http://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/blog/art-in-the-archives/?dm_i=3PUB,9WT9,36LWJC,100ZD,1 |title=Art in the Archives / The horrors of war |date=8 September 2017|access-date=15 September 2017|work=The National Archives}}</ref> Although the drawings were bought by the British [[Ministry of Information (United Kingdom)|Ministry of Information]], Peake's application was turned down and he was [[conscription|conscripted]] into the Army, where he served first with the [[Royal Artillery]], then with the [[Royal Engineers]]. He began writing ''Titus Groan'' at this time.

In April 1942, after his requests for commissions as a war artist&nbsp;– or even leave to depict war damage in London&nbsp;– had been consistently refused, he suffered a nervous breakdown and was sent to Southport Hospital. That autumn he was taken on as a graphic artist by the Ministry of Information for a period of six months to work on propaganda illustrations. The next spring he was invalided out of the Army. In 1943 he was commissioned by the [[War Artists' Advisory Committee]], WAAC, to paint [[glassblowing|glassblowers]] at the [[Chance Brothers]] factory in [[Smethwick]] where cathode ray tubes for early radar sets were being produced.<ref name="Liss2016">{{cite book|first=Sacha |last=Llewellyn |author2= Paul Liss|publisher=Liss Llewellyn Fine Art|year=2016|title=WWII War Pictures by British Artists|isbn=978-0-9930884-2-1}}</ref> Peake was next given a full-time, three-month WAAC contract to depict various factory subjects and was also asked to submit a large painting showing RAF pilots being debriefed.<ref name="Foss">{{cite book|first=Brain |last=Foss|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2007|title=War Paint: Art, War, State and Identity in Britain, 1939–1945 |isbn=978-0-300-10890-3}}</ref><ref name=IWMWmp>{{cite web |author=Imperial War Museum|url=http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1050001231|title=War artists archive Mervyn Peake |access-date=11 August 2014|work=[[Imperial War Museum]]}}</ref> Some of these paintings are on permanent display in Manchester Art Gallery whilst other examples are in the [[Imperial War Museum]] collection.<ref name="WW2Art">{{cite book|publisher=Imperial War Museum|year=2007|title=Art from the Second World War|isbn=978-1-904897-66-8}}</ref>