The Machiavellian kitchen boy Steerpike schemes to take control of a decaying castle ruled by Lord Sepulcrave in a novel by this author.
When he is trying to move stealthily, one of this author's characters muffles his knees, which are repeatedly said to crack like pistol shots. A character aims to get revenge on the scientists who killed all the animals in his zoo with a death-ray, in a novel whose quality is thought to have been affected by this author's advanced stage of Parkinson's. In the middle novel of a trilogy by this author, a torrential downpour transforms the setting into an archipelago navigable only by boat. A character goes insane and imagines himself to be a Death (*) Owl, after his beloved library is torched by his twin sisters Cora and Clarice in the climactic scene of a novel by this author. The Machiavellian kitchen boy Steerpike schemes to take control of a decaying castle ruled by Lord Sepulcrave in a novel by this author. For 10 points, name this English author of Titus Groan, the first entry in the Gormenghast series of gothic fantasy novels.
When he is trying to move stealthily, one of this author's characters muffles his knees, which are repeatedly said to crack like pistol shots.
Mervyn Peake