Whether by accident or design, it happens that Gormenghast is geographically situated in a manner that recalls China: “the wastelands” to the north correspond to the Gobi desert and Mongolia, there is a shallow sea to the east and more sea to the south, while to the west the “knuckles of endless rock” correspond to the Himalayas and the Sinkiang. To quote a significant paragraph of the article: Winnington then goes on to speculate that whether intentional or not, the country where Peake grew up, China, was, until around the time of Peake's birth, isolated much as Gormenghast is, and contains climes similar to those of Gormenghast. The isolation of Gormenghast is a major feature of the story with no mention of any other location outside of the castles and vast forests that surround it. Having seen these exceptions Winnington mentions Countess Groan statingĪs well, a general sense of isolation and insularity is prevalent in the books. In addition the school boasts a chemistry teacher - such an esoteric field being difficult to imagine being created in isolation from the rest of the world. When awakened from his dozing in front of his class an isthmus being something that Gormenghast doesn't have. Lord Groan's), firearms, a globe ('Cane Slypate thursday'), Dr Prunesquallor's sister Irma reads lady's journals for the latest fashions etc., and not least Bellgrove barking Winnington in his article makes a very valid point that the location exists only in Peake's mind - there are many logical inconsistencies in the story, such as Gormenghast being isolated almost entirely from the world, but still having things like massive libraries (e.g. Winnington is the author and publisher of the journal. To expand on Peter Winnington's answer and fill in the details from the article and journal, which is now freely available on JSTOR (you do need to create an account though).

The gormenghast