“An aching to be once again in the land from which he grew gave him no rest. There is no calm for those who are uprooted. They are wanderers, homesick and defiant. Love itself is helpless to heal them though the dust rises with every footfall—drifts down the corridors—settles on branch or cornice—each breath an inhalation from the past so that the lungs, like a miner’s, are dark with bygone times.
Whatever they eat, whatever they drink, is never the bread of home or the corn of their own valleys. It is never the wine of their own vineyards. It is a foreign brew.”

— Mervyn Peake , book Titus Alone

Source: Titus Alone (1959), Chapter 34 (p. 862)

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Mervyn Peake 91

English writer, artist, poet and illustrator 1911–1968

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Mervyn Peake 91

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