because not only is the TV preview really funny, but his childhood reading is identical to mine:
Which book or series do you read that makes you feel nostalgic, remembering the period in your life you first read it?
The Gormenghast books, by Mervyn Peake. I was about 12 or 13 the first time I tried to read them. I was going through lots of fantasy and sci-fi of different varieties, Lord of the Rings, the Dune books, Douglas Adams, Stephen R Donaldson, Julian May, Terry Brooks. But the Gormenghast books were something else. I can�t remember how I first stumbled across them, but I had that real sense of having discovered something no one else knew about. Which was nonsense, of course: but they�re the kind of books that make you feel like that. Also, as a kid sitting in his bedroom trying to draw, I remember it was really important to me that Peake did his own illustrations. The books are so strange � sad, violent and funny, with an unforgettable anti-hero, but you�re watching it all through this damp cloud of white dust and black soot. To use the jargon, it's real �world building.� The density of the language, these long, minute descriptions, they just surround you � and, I�ll admit, made the books quite heavy going the first time I tried them. I�ve just started reading them again, for the first time since back then. They�re just incredible. There was great new collection of the complete trilogy published in 2011, which added many more of Peake�s drawings, plus an introduction by either China Mieville or Michael Moorcock, depending on whether you buy the UK or US edition.
http://www.fantasybookreview.co.uk/interview/2015/damien-love/My exact early teenage reading, every single author - and I couldn't get through Gormenghast the first time, but returned a few years later and loved it. Though I never tried to draw.
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