The book is written in the third person, which allows the characters and events unfold simultaneously. Her main confidant is Doctor Prunesquallor, the Royal Physician, who seems to be the only person in her small and fettered world that seems to truly care about Fuchsia and her welfare. The Character of Lady Fuchsia appears to be the one innocent Titus being unaware of anything happening around him and being as yet unable to interact with any of the unfolding events, she seems torn between her status of royal of Gormenghast and being a normal teenage girl looking for her parents love and attention. Go away and leave the door six inches open.” Let him wear it around his wry little neck. Make him green dresses from the velvet curtains. Find a wet nurse from the Outer Dwellings. “Slagg”, said the Countess, “go away! I would like to see the boy when he is six.

“His little lordship”, she whimpered weakly, “his pretty little lordship”. The baby awoke at the sound and moaned, and Nannie Slagg retreated.

“Who?” shouted the Countess so loudly that a string of tallow wavered in the shifting light. “Isn’t he sweet, oh isn’t he the sweetest drop of sugar that ever was?” said Mrs Slagg. He is also intrigued with Lady Fuchsia who whilst drawn to him also is deeply suspicious of him. Central to events is Steerpike, a very bright and opportunistic kitchen porter looking for a way out and seeing the insecurities and mistrust within the royal household ripe for exploitation, not least through Sepulchrave’s twin sisters Cora and Clara who are constantly looking for ways to unseat their sister-in-law and bring their own profiles to the fore. Their dysfunctional relationship with one another translates through their relationship with their servants and subjects. The main protagonists in the story are the Groan family Lady Fuchsia, Titus’ older sister, Lord Sepulchrave, the seventy-sixth and current Earl and the Countess. The story flows well with the help of characters such as Flay who almost acts as unwitting guide to the reader around the castle and the other players in this tale. The beginning of the book certainly grabs your attention as the story begins outside the walls of Gormenghast Castle with the dwellers and draws you in with the birth of Titus to his most unconventional mother, the Countess Gertrude. There are also touches of real affection and lots of subtle humour. The events, which lead up to the ‘Earling’ of little Titus, involve treachery, greed, murder, madness and revenge. The story covers the first two years of Titus’ young life, from birth to his investiture as the seventy-seventh Earl and everything that happens in the Kingdom of Gormenghast during this time. Titus Groan is the Seventy Seventh Earl of Gormenghast in waiting and his birth begins this story and that of his rather eccentric family, their servants and the kingdom of Gormenghast itself.

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