Gormenghast (series) a year later with his "Earling" or formal investiture as the seventy-seventh Earl of Groan, after the untimely death of his father Sepulchrave. As Titus is only an infant in this novel, he plays a minor role. The main plot therefore follows the somewhat bizarre inhabitants of Gormenghast Castle, and in particular chronicles the rise to power of Steerpike, a scheming kitchen boy. Steerpike successfully destroys the existing order of the castle by inciting the twin sisters of Sepulchrave, Cora and Clarice, to burn Sepulchrave's beloved library. This event drives Sepulchrave into madness and eventually into taking his own life.
Brian Sibley and "Gormenghast" for Radio 4, for which he received a Sony Radio Award in 1985. He returned to Peake's writings in 2011 with "The History of Titus Groan", a cycle of six one-hour plays for BBC Radio 4's 'Classic Serial' based on "Titus Groan", "Gormenghast", "Titus Alone" and Maeve Gilmore's "Titus Awakes". Produced Jeremy Mortimer, the series began transmission on Sunday 10 July with a cast headed by David Warner, Luke Treadaway and Miranda Richardson and won the BBC Audio Drama Award 2012 for Best Adaptation. Other major radio dramatisations by Sibley include: John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress"; Tolkien's "Tales