Reading the 20th Century discussion

I've set up a new thread for Simon Raven to avoid confusion on the Anthony Powell thread where this discussion originated

By the by, a fellow Powell 'Dance' devotee also recommended....


Simon Raven's Alms for Oblivion, Vol. I & the subsequent volumes.

Has anyone else read these books?

ALMS FOR OBLIVION is a series of ten novels, all telling separate stories but at the same time linked together by the characters they have in common: soldiers and dons, men of business, politicians and writers. Full of hearty rancour, they form a scathing chronicle of the upper echelons of postwar English society, and this omnibus edition contains the first four volumes of the celebrated series: FIELDING GRAY, FRIENDS IN LOW PLACES, THE SABRE SQUADRON and THE RICH PAY LATE.

Susan wrote: "Just looked up Alms for Oblivion on Amazon and can see many have some very Carry On Seventies covers, so I would certainly expect a 'smidgeon of smut'! "

A great phrase Susan

Rosina wrote: "I've read Simon Raven's Alms for Oblivion, Vol. I - and even own them, up there on my bookshelf. I think I've even got most of the following series, The First-Born of Egypt, and several stand alones. I haven't read them for ages, though!"

Rosina wrote: "I must have enjoyed them in the first place, or I wouldn't have bought them all. I do remember them as being quite dark in places, and a bit raunchy, but with some interesting characters and story lines.

So I would recommend that someone who doesn't mind a smidgeon of smut should try them. "

Thanks Rosina. I'm sure I could manage a smidgeon of smut and even a bit of raunch. I'll give one a try and report back - though not sure how or when.

From Wikipedia....


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.

Volume 1: The Rich Pay Late, Friends In Low Places, The Sabre Squadron and Fielding Gray

Volume 2: The Judas Boy, Places Where They Sing, Sound the Retreat and Come Like Shadows

Volume 3: Bring Forth The Body and The Survivors

From the Penguin author page...

Author Simon Raven was perhaps known as much for his controversial behaviour as for his writing. He grew up reading and studying the classics, translating them from Greek and Latin into English and vice-versa. He was expelled from Charterhouse School in 1945 for homosexual activities, having first been seduced at the age of nine by the games master (an experience he described as giving 'immediate and unalloyed pleasure") and went on to join the army. Following his National Service, Raven attended King's College, Cambridge to read English. Raven later returned to the army but was asked to resign rather than face a court-martial for 'conduct unbecoming.' It was at this point that he turned his focus to writing. The publisher Anthony Blond paid Raven to write and to move away from London to Deal, Kent. His works span a multitude of genres including fiction, drama, essays, memoirs and screenplays. Simon Raven died in May 2001, having written his own epitaph: "He shared his bottle - and, when still young and appetising, his bed."

I've just bought a second hand copy of....


The Rich Pay Late

I'm hoping for this cover....



Curiously it's the first he wrote but the fourth in the chronology of the series, which leaves me wondering if I should read this one fourth or first.

I've also just bought Fielding Gray which is the fourth to be published but the first chronologically (set in 1945). Confusing eh?

I haven’t read any of Raven’s books but he was a great screenwriter. He wrote the famous BBC adaptation of The Pallisers by Anthony Trollope.

Interesting. Thanks Judy.

He certainly sounds like an intriguing and interesting character.

This from Wikipedia...

Simon Arthur Noël Raven (28 December 1927 – 12 May 2001) was an English novelist, essayist, dramatist and raconteur who, in a writing career of forty years, caused controversy, amusement and offence. His obituary in The Guardian noted that, "he combined elements of Flashman, Waugh's Captain Grimes and the Earl of Rochester", and that he reminded Noel Annan, his Cambridge tutor, of the young Guy Burgess.

I am on my phone, so can't see what is inside the book (re: contents) but which title does the trilogy edition list first, Nigeyb?

Susan wrote: "I am on my phone, so can't see what is inside the book (re: contents) but which title does the trilogy edition list first, Nigeyb?"


Volume 1: The Rich Pay Late, Friends In Low Places, The Sabre Squadron and Fielding Gray

And then...

Volume 2: The Judas Boy, Places Where They Sing, Sound the Retreat and Come Like Shadows

Volume 3: Bring Forth The Body and The Survivors

I prefer the covers of the volume collections to the very 'Robin Askwith' single novels, Nigeyb! Having looked on Amazon I found I have actually purchased (but not read, obviously) volume one of this set and am now on a mission to hunt it out!

Great news Susan. I like nothing more than reading a 60s paperback complete with "period" cover.


I look forward to discovering what you make of Simon Raven. Bonus points for evoking the name of Robin Askwith.

I've now received numbers 1 (1. Fielding Gray) and 4 (4. The Rich Pay Late) (in chronological order, not in the order in which they were published).


I plan to read them chronologically....

1. Fielding Gray
2. Sound the Retreat
3. The Sabre Squadron
4. The Rich Pay Late
5. Friends In Low Places
6. The Judas Boy
7. Places Where They Sing
8. Come Like Shadows
9. Bring Forth The Body
10. The Survivors

Sadly not with the Robin Askwith covers though. Mine are more muted covers published by Granada....

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z3dVc5lIfmo...

I doubt he would approve, Nigeyb ;)