I was recently in contact with britain 's only current astronaut-in-training - tim peake who reminded me that even over relatively short periods , weightlessness can affect everything from balance and cardiovascular health to muscle mass and bone density .
Peake recreated the mountain as the location for gormenghast in his three titus groan novels , and , as I got my eye in , I began to see the looming bulk of his castle and , beyond it , " the long broken line of gormenghast 's backbone " .
Watching the rock faces come and go , materialising faintly through the cloud , I thought of another writer , the english novelist mervyn peake . He was a mission child like buck , born on lushan in 1911 , the year of the first chinese revolution .
