Simon Raven

2025-10-08T19:54:30Z

2406:F680:8105:2A52:4479:B22:6B6F:AAA9:

{{Short description|British writer (1927–2001)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}

{{Infobox writer
| name = Simon Raven
| image =
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{birth date|1927|12|28|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[London]], [[England]]
| death_date = {{Death date and age|2001|05|12|1927|12|28|df=y}}
| death_place = London, England
| occupation = {{flatlist|
* Author
* playwright
* essayist
* television writer
* screenwriter
}}
| citizenship = British
| ethnicity =
| language = English
| period =
| subject =
| alma_mater =
| spouse =
| influences =
| influenced =
| notableworks =
| awards =
| signature =
| signature_alt =
}}

'''Simon Arthur Noël Raven''' (28 December 1927 – 12 May 2001) was an English author, playwright, essayist, television writer, and screenwriter. He is known for his louche lifestyle as much as for his literary output.

Expelled from [[Charterhouse School]], he was commissioned in the infantry in [[National service]], before studying at [[King's College, Cambridge]]. Unable to earn a living as a writer, he rejoined the Army, but soon resigned, rather than be court-martialled for [[Conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman|'conduct unbecoming']], on account of his gambling debts.

Declaring that he wrote only for people who shared his own standards, he never attracted the mass market, and had to be rescued by publisher [[Anthony Blond]], who paid him a regular wage on condition that he stayed out of London and concentrated on his writings, many of which Blond published. The arrangement lasted for over 30 years.

Raven is remembered for his ten-novel sequence ''Alms for Oblivion'' and its baroque, supernatural sequels ''The Roses of Picardie'' and ''September Castle''; as well as ''The Feathers of Death'', an exploratory early army novel dealing with homosexuality between officers and "other ranks". He also wrote scripts for the television drama series ''[[The Pallisers]]'' (1974) and ''[[Edward & Mrs. Simpson]]'' (1978).

==Biography==

===Birth, family and education===
Born on 28 December 1927 in [[London]],<ref>The place of his birth is not recorded; according to his biographer Michael Barber, it was in a private Welbeck Street nursing home. See "The Captain" p19</ref> he was the eldest of three children. His father, Arthur Raven, had inherited a fortune from the family's hosiery business, and lived a life of leisure.<ref name="Brooke Allen article"/> His mother Esther, née Christmas, a baker's daughter, was a distance and [[cross-country running|cross-country]] athlete who represented England against France in March 1932.<ref>She became the second-fastest woman in England over 3 miles during the 1930s, with a time of 20'18", succeeding her younger sister Ruth</ref> He was educated first at Cordwalles preparatory school near [[Camberley]], [[Surrey]], then as a scholarship pupil at [[Charterhouse School|Charterhouse]], whence he was expelled in 1945 for homosexual activities.<ref>Michael Barber, ''The Captain''. It is said that the stress of expelling Raven turned headmaster [[Robert Birley]]'s hair grey</ref> Amongst his school contemporaries were [[James Prior]], [[William Rees-Mogg]], [[Oliver Popplewell]] and [[Peter May (cricketer)|Peter May]]. After completing national service he entered [[King's College, Cambridge]], in 1948, to read classics.

Although he possessed a first-class intelligence, this was not matched by his application, and his university career was punctuated by regular crises over money, misbehaviour and an apparent inability – or, more likely, unwillingness – to connect actions with their consequences. His intelligence garnered him only an upper second, a degree which would not normally have gained him a studentship to read for a doctorate. That it did so may be attributed, essentially, to his personal charm, which gained him credit with the Fellows responsible for awarding scholarships. He was awarded a studentship (graduate fellowship) to study the influence of the classics in Victorian schooling, but this soon gave way to pleasure-seeking and his thesis was never seriously addressed.<ref>Martin, NY Times; Brooke Allen article</ref> In 1951, he married Susan Kilner, a graduate from [[Newnham College, Cambridge|Newnham]] who was expecting his child; the marriage was from duty, as he made clear, and afterwards, he studiously avoided her.<ref>Barber, Guardian obit</ref> A son, Adam, was born in 1952. (The couple divorced in 1957.) Raven, his scholarship funds exhausted, withdrew from King's,<ref>Hughes obituary says he was sent down for "terminal lassitude".</ref> and attempted to earn a living as a writer, gaining a small income as book reviewer for ''[[The Listener (magazine)|The Listener]]''. He also wrote a novel, which proved unpublishable because of its libellous nature, and only emerged almost 30 years later as ''An Inch of Fortune''. Seeking a firmer livelihood, Raven decided to rejoin the [[British Army]].

===Army===
During his earlier [[Conscription in the United Kingdom#After 1945|National Service]], Raven had briefly served as an officer cadet in the [[Parachute Regiment (United Kingdom)|Parachute Regiment]], and in 1947 was on a posting in [[British India|India]], during the final months of British rule there. He was subsequently commissioned into the [[Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry]], before being seconded to the [[6th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery#Postwar|77th Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment]], [[Royal Artillery]] at [[Rollestone]] Balloon Camp in [[Wiltshire]], where he saw out his service.<ref>''The Captain'', p93</ref> In 1953, after university, he secured a regular commission with the [[The King's Shropshire Light Infantry|King's Shropshire Light Infantry]] (KSLI), serving in [[West Germany]] and [[Kenya]], before receiving a home posting to [[Shrewsbury]]. It was during this period, when he was still married to Susan, that he sent his notorious telegram to her in response to her telegraphic plea for money: "Sorry no money, suggest eat baby". Such a callous response suggests that he cared nothing for his wife and child, although in fact he diligently provided for Adam's education and welfare. During his Shrewsbury posting he gambled heavily at local race meetings, and he was soon in severe financial straits following a "disastrous sequence of slow horses". Faced with the prospect of a court-martial for "conduct unbecoming" he was allowed to resign quietly, to avoid scandal in the regiment.<ref>Barber, Guardian obit; Hughes, Independent obit</ref> This episode he later described with candour in ''Shadows on the Grass''.

===Writing career===
At almost 30 years of age he had no career or prospects, but from his studies of the classics he had developed a lucid writing style, derived, as he said, from the Army's admirable instruction to be "brief, neat and plain". This, allied to his ready and disrespectful wit, was allowing him to survive precariously in journalism when, in 1958, he was employed by publisher [[Anthony Blond]]: "I had picked him up through [[Hugh Thomas, Baron Thomas of Swynnerton|Hugh Thomas]] who was editing a symposium for me, called ''The Establishment''. Simon was billed to do the piece on the Army". Blond financed him while he wrote his first published novel, ''The Feathers of Death'' (1959). Blond was impressed enough to offer him a contract to continue writing for him, on condition he lived away from London, and paid off Raven's debts. "This is the last hand-out you get", he was told. "Leave London, or leave my employ". He moved to lodgings in [[Deal, Kent]], and was paid (reportedly) a £15 wage by Blond.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080307192358/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/01/db0101.xml Obituary] of Anthony Blond, ''Daily Telegraph'', 1 March 2008. Retrieved on 4 March 2008.</ref> As a consequence of this arrangement, during the remainder of his working life, Raven became one of Britain's most prolific writers in a range of genres including fiction, essays, personal reminiscences, polemics, theatre, screenplays and magazine journalism. He was at various times compared with [[Evelyn Waugh]], [[Graham Greene]], [[Anthony Powell]] and [[Lawrence Durrell]], but his voice was his own: "Raven came nearer than other novelists to exposing, in the grandeur of its squalor and the dubiety of its standards, the times he lived in and saw through".<ref>Hughes, Independent obit</ref> His own view of his craft was less exalted; in the words of his writer-character Fielding Gray in the novel ''Places Where They Sing'' (1970): "I arrange words in pleasing patterns in order to make money".<ref>Quoted by Martin, NY Times obit</ref>

He had a fascination for the supernatural, first manifested in his early novel ''Doctors Wear Scarlet'', which features Balkan [[vampires]] (though they are practitioners of vampirism as a sexual deviation rather than an actual supernatural manifestation) and was cited by [[Karl Edward Wagner]] as one of the thirteen best supernatural novels.<ref>N G Christakos: "Three by Thirteen: The Karl Edward Wagner Lists" in ''Black Prometheus: A Critical Study of Karl Edward Wagner'' ed. Benjamin Szumskyj, Gothic Press, 2007</ref> The Gothic themes became stronger in later works such as ''The Roses of Picardie'', ''September Castle'', parts of the ''First-Born of Egypt'' sequence,<ref>Howard Watson observes, in his article ''The Gothic World of Simon Raven'' (Dark Horizon, 2001) that by the seventh and final book of the "First-Born" sequence, the "extraordinary and absurd had become a regular, feature of the author's oeuvre</ref> and the 1994 novella ''The Islands of Sorrow''.

Although he acquired an enthusiastic and loyal following, he was never a top-seller in terms of the mass market. Quoted by Brooke Allen: "I've always written for a small audience of people like myself, who are well-educated, worldly, sceptical and snobbish (meaning that they rank good taste over bad)".

His ten-novel sequence ''Alms for Oblivion'' is usually regarded as his best achievement – [[A. N. Wilson]] thought it "the jolliest [[roman-fleuve]]"<ref>Wilson is quoted from Hughes, The Independent</ref> – though it is likely that he gained wider public recognition for his TV work, especially the adaptation of ''[[The Pallisers]]'' (1974) and ''[[Edward & Mrs. Simpson]]'' (1978). As he grew older his rate of output lessened, and there was deterioration in its quality,<ref name="Brooke Allen article"/> but he was still being published in the late 1990s, his last book being ''Remember Your Grammar and Other Haunted Stories'' (1997), a collection of ghost and supernatural short stories.

Raven's book of anecdotes and reminiscences, ''Is there anybody there? said the Traveller'' (Frederick Muller 1990) was withdrawn after a series of libel action threats, including a writ from Anthony Blond.<ref>Blond,in a postscript to Hughes's Independent obit, says he was awarded £3000</ref> Thereafter he planned, or at least threatened, to write a new work ''All Safely Dead'', in which, safe from the [[Libel law in Britain|laws of libel]], he could "expose" various deceased luminaries from the British social, academic, political and literary scenes, but the book was never written.<ref>Hughes, The Independent</ref>

===Later life===
Throughout his life, Raven pursued a hedonistic lifestyle which included eating, drinking, travel, cricket, gambling and socialising. He spent what he earned, and after 34 years in Kent at Blond's behest he finally moved to London on securing lodgings in the [[London Charterhouse]], the almshouse historically associated with Charterhouse School. Here he led a quieter version of his former life. In 1993, he was elected a Fellow of the [[Royal Society of Literature]]. A biography of Raven, ''The Captain'', written by [[Michael Barber (biographer)|Michael Barber]], was published in 1996. In 1997, he appeared with [[Melvyn Bragg]] in a ''[[The South Bank Show|South Bank Show]]'' devoted to his career, in good spirits and without regrets. His health continued to fail, however, and after a series of strokes<ref>On cause of death, Martin says this was "not announced", but both Barber and Hughes refer to strokes</ref> he died in London on 12 May 2001, aged 73.

==Legacy==

Raven's obituary in ''[[The Guardian]]'' observed that, "he combined elements of [[Harry Flashman|Flashman]], [[Evelyn Waugh|Waugh]]'s [[Decline and Fall|Captain Grimes]] and the [[John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester|Earl of Rochester]]", and that he reminded [[Noel Annan, Baron Annan|Noel Annan]], his Cambridge tutor, of the young [[Guy Burgess]].<ref>Barber, Guardian obit.</ref>

Among the many things said about him, perhaps the most quoted was that he had "the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel".<ref>This quotation was given prominence on many of the paperback editions of the novels, to promote sales</ref> [[E. W. Swanton]] called Raven's cricket memoir ''Shadows on the Grass'' "the filthiest cricket book ever written". Typically, Raven's response to this was to ask Swanton's permission to quote this opinion on the book's jacket.<ref>To which Raven is said to have responded: "Can I quote you on that, Jim?" (Brooke Allen article)</ref> He has also been called "cynical" and "cold-blooded", his characters "guaranteed to behave badly under pressure; most of them are vile without any pressure at all".<ref>DT obituary quoted by Martin in NY Times obit.</ref> His unashamed credo was "a robust eighteenth-century paganism ... allied to a deep contempt for the egalitarian code of post-war England".<ref name="Brooke Allen article">Brooke Allen article</ref>

==List of works==

===Novels===

====Early novels====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="225"|Title
! width="225"|Publisher
! width="50"|Year
|-
|''An Inch of Fortune''
| Anthony Blond
|1980*
|-
|''The Feathers of Death''
| Anthony Blond
|1959
|-
|''Brother Cain''
| Anthony Blond
|1959
|-
|''Doctors Wear Scarlet''
| Anthony Blond
|1960
|-
|''Close of Play''
| Anthony Blond
|1962
|}
* Note: His first novel, ''An Inch of Fortune'', written circa 1951, was not published until 1980

====''Alms for Oblivion'' series====

The 10 novels cover the period 1945 to 1973 and centre on a group of upper and upper middle class characters, forming a [[novel sequence]], if a somewhat loosely structured one. The early novels are robust satires of the English upper set of the mid-1950s, but the later tend to a more detached and philosophical tone, becoming concerned with the occult and supernatural, and including strange happenings.

{| class="sortable wikitable"
|-
! width="225"|Title
! width="175"|Internal chronology
! width="175"|Publisher
! width="50"|Year
|-
|''[[The Rich Pay Late]]''
|1955–56
| Anthony Blond
|1964
|-
|''[[Friends In Low Places (novel)|Friends In Low Places]]''
|1959
| Anthony Blond
|1965
|-
|''[[The Sabre Squadron]]''
|1952
| Anthony Blond
|1966
|-
|''[[Fielding Gray]]''
|1945
| Anthony Blond
|1967
|-
|''[[The Judas Boy]]''
|1962
| Anthony Blond
|1968
|-
|''[[Places Where They Sing]]''
|1967
| Anthony Blond
|1970
|-
|''[[Sound The Retreat]]''
|1945–46
| Anthony Blond
|1971
|-
|''[[Come Like Shadows]]''
|1970
| Blond & Briggs
|1972
|-
|''[[Bring Forth The Body]]''
|1972
| Blond & Briggs
|1974
|-
|''[[The Survivors (Simon Raven novel)|The Survivors]]''
|1973
| Blond & Briggs
|1976
|}

====''The First-Born of Egypt'' series====

This sequence is a continuation of ''Alms for Oblivion'', with many of the same characters, but with storylines tending to centre on the "next generation" and the introduction of darker, mystic themes. These books were written strictly for money, and received little critical acclaim,<ref name="Brooke Allen article"/> but Raven had fun killing off many of the survivors from the earlier sequence, usually in absurd and/or humiliating circumstances.

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="225"|Title
! width="225"|Publisher
! width="50"|Year
|-
|''[[Morning Star (Raven novel)|Morning Star]]''
| Blond & Briggs
|1984
|-
|''The Face of the Waters''
| Anthony Blond
|1985
|-
|''Before the Cock Crow''
| Muller, Blond & White
|1986
|-
|''New Seed for Old''
| Frederick Muller
|1988
|-
|''Blood of My Bone''
| Frederick Muller
|1989
|-
|''In the Image of God''
| Frederick Muller
|1990
|-
|''The Troubadour''
| Hutchinson
|1992
|}

====Other novels====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="225"|Title
! width="225"|Publisher
! width="50"|Year
|-
|''The Roses of Picardie''
| Blond & Briggs
|1980
|-
|''September Castle''
| Blond & Briggs
|1984
|}

===Essays, reminiscences and polemics===
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="225"|Title
! width="150"|Publisher
! width="50"|Year
|-
|''The English Gentleman'' (see note)
| Anthony Blond
|1961
|-
|''Boys Will Be Boys''
| Anthony Blond
|1963
|-
|''The Fortunes of Fingel''
| Anthony Blond
|1976
|-
|''Shadows on the Grass''
| Blond & Briggs
|1982
|-
|''The Old School''
| Hamish Hamilton
|1986
|-
|''The Old Gang''
| Hamish Hamilton
|1988
|-
|''Bird of Ill Omen''
| Hamish Hamilton
|1989
|-
|''Is there anybody there? said the Traveller''
| Frederick Muller
|1990 (withdrawn)
|}
Note: ''The English Gentleman'' was also published as ''The Decline of the Gentleman''

===Other writings===

(this table is not necessarily complete)
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="400"|Title
! width="150"|Publisher
! width="50"|Year
|-
|Introduction to ''The Best of Gerald Kersh''
| Heinemann
|1960
|-
|''Chriseis'' (Short Story)
| No details
|1960
|-
|Contribution to ''The Vampire' (Anthology ed. Riva & Volta)
| Macmillan
|1963
|-
|''Introductions to Trollope's "Palliser" novels''
| Panther Books
|1973
|-
|''The Islands of Sorrow'' (short stories)
| The Winged Lion
|1994
|-
|Contribution to ''The Vampire Omnibus'' ed. Peter Haining
| Orion Paperbacks
|1995
|-
|''Remember Your Grammar and Other Haunted Stories'' (short stories)
| The Winged Lion
|1997
|-
|''The World of Simon Raven'' (collected journalism)
| [[Prion Humour Classics]]
|2002
|}

He also wrote features and articles for: ''The Listener''; ''Encounter''; ''London Magazine''; ''Spectator''; ''New Statesman'' and other magazines and journals

===Plays, screenplays, TV and film adaptations===

====Selected plays====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="225"|Title
! width="225"|Performance History
! Width="225"|Publication History
|-
|''Royal Foundation''
| No performance details
| Anthony Blond, 1966*
|-
|''The Move Up-Country''
| No performance details
| Anthony Blond, 1966*
|-
|''The Doomsday School''
| No performance details
| Anthony Blond, 1966*
|-
|''The Scapegoat''
| TV "[[First Night]]" series 1964
| Anthony Blond, 1966*
|-
|''Panther Larkin''
| No performance details
| Anthony Blond. 1966*
|-
|''The High King's Tomb''
| No performance details
| Anthony Blond, 1966*
|-
|''The Gaming Book''
| TV [[Armchair Theatre]] series, 1965
| Anthony Blond, 1966*
|-
|''Sir Jocelyn, The Minister Would Like a Word''
| TV [[Wednesday Play]] series, 1965
| Anthony Blond, 1966*
|-
|''The Case of Father Brendan''
| 1968, London (no other details)
| No publication details
|}
*''Royal Foundation and Other Plays'', Anthony Blond 1966

====Selected screenplays, TV and film adaptations====
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! width="225"|Title
! width="225"|Type
! width="50"|Year
! width="225"|Notes
|-
|''[[The Scapegoat (TV play)|The Scapegoat]]''
| "First Night" TV play series
|1962
| Adapted from own stage play
|-
|''The Gaming Book''
| TV [[Armchair Theatre]]
|1965
| Adapted from own stage play
|-
|''Sir Jocelyn, The Minister Would Like A Word''
| TV [[Wednesday Play]]
|1965
| Adapted from own stage play
|-
|''A Soiree at Blossom's Hotel''
| TV [[Wednesday Play]]
|1966
|
|-
|''A Pyre For Private James''
| TV [[Wednesday Play]]
|1966
|
|-
|''[[Point Counter Point]]''
| TV mini series
|1968
| Adapted from [[Aldous Huxley]]
|-
|''The Outstation''
| Episode of TV series
|1968
| Episode 11 of ''[[The Jazz Age]]''
|-
|[[The Way We Live Now (1969 TV serial)|''The Way We Live Now'']]
| TV mini series
|1969
| Adapted from [[Anthony Trollope]]
|-
|''The Creative Impulse''
| TV dramatisation
|1969
| From [[W Somerset Maugham]] story
|-
| ''[[On Her Majesty's Secret Service (film)|On Her Majesty's Secret Service]]''
| [[James Bond]] film
|1969
| Credited with "additional dialogue"
|-
|''The Human Element''
| TV dramatisation
|1970
| From [[W Somerset Maugham]] story
|-
|''[[Incense for the Damned]]'' (see below)
| Screenplay from own novel
|1970
| Adapted from ''Doctors Wear Scarlet''
|-
|''[[Unman, Wittering and Zigo (film)|Unman, Wittering and Zigo]]''
| Screenplay
|1971
| From [[Giles Cooper (playwright)|Giles Cooper]] play
|-
|''[[The Pallisers]]''
| TV series (26 episodes UK)
|1974
| Adaptation from [[Anthony Trollope]]
|-
|''An Unofficial Rose''
| TV mini series
|1974
| Adaptation from [[Iris Murdoch]]
|-
|''Sexton Blake and the Demon God''
|TV series
|1976
|-
|''[[Edward and Mrs Simpson]]''
| TV series
|1978
| From book by [[Frances Donaldson]]
|-
|''[[Love in a Cold Climate (TV serial, 1980)|Love in a Cold Climate]]''
| TV mini series
|1980
| Adapted from [[Nancy Mitford]]
|-
|''[[The Blackheath Poisonings (TV series)|The Blackheath Poisonings]]''
| TV play
|1992
| Co-writer with [[Julian Symons]]
|}

Note: The US title for ''Incense of the Damned'' was: ''"Bloodsuckers"''

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

==Further reading==
* Michael Barber: ''The Captain: The Life and Times of Simon Raven'', London : Duckbacks, 2001, {{ISBN|0-7156-3138-1}}

==Sources==
*Brooke Allen: "Who Was Simon Raven?": ''The New Criterion, April 2003'' (on http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/simonraven-allen-1756)
*Michael Barber: "The Captain: The Life and Times of Simon Raven", ''Gerald Duckworth, 1996'' {{ISBN|0-7156-2786-4}}
*[https://www.theguardian.com/obituaries/story/0,3604,491484,00.html Obituary], ''[[The Guardian]]'', 16 May 2001 by Michael Barber
*[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1330265/Simon-Raven.html Obituary], ''[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]]'', 15 May 2001
*[https://www.nytimes.com/2001/05/17/arts/simon-raven-satiric-novelist-dies-at-73.html Obituary], ''[[The New York Times]]'' 17 May 2001 by Douglas Martin
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20060806191903/http://news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article1207629.ece Obituary], ''[[The Independent]]'' 1 August 2006 obit of Adam Raven by Thomas Thirkell
*[http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/introduces/simonraven.htm "The Gothic World of Simon Raven"] at [[Infinity Plus]]

==External links==
* {{IMDb name|0712362}}
* {{LCAuth|n79107740|Simon Raven|39|ue}}

{{Simon Raven}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raven, Simon}}
[[Category:1927 births]]
[[Category:2001 deaths]]
[[Category:King's Shropshire Light Infantry officers]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature]]
[[Category:People educated at Charterhouse School]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry officers]]
[[Category:English bisexual men]]
[[Category:English bisexual writers]]
[[Category:English male novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century English male writers]]
[[Category:English LGBTQ novelists]]
[[Category:Bisexual novelists]]
[[Category:Bisexual male writers]]
[[Category:Screenwriters of Sexton Blake]]
[[Category:20th-century British Army personnel]]
[[Category:Military personnel from London]]
[[Category:British Parachute Regiment officers]]

Vero - Wikipedia - User contributions [en]

Simon Raven