Alms for Oblivion Series by Simon Raven (10 novels: 1964-1976)
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Overview: 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.
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". 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. 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". His unashamed credo was "a robust eighteenth-century paganism….allied to a deep contempt for the egalitarian code of post-war England."
Genre: Historical Fiction, some MM
Fielding Gray (1967) chronologically 1st in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
Set in 1945, Fielding Gray is groping his way towards manhood. Golden boy of his public school, potential Cambridge scholar, he seems all set for the easy accolades of upper-class society. In his last summer holiday from school, he has his first urgent, fevered sexual encounters with girls. He loses his innocence by degrees — with the teasing Angela Tuck in games of strip poker … with fearful Dixie in a fairground Ghost Train … and, finally, with a coldly efficient prostitute in a little room with a big bed. But 17 year old Fielding is himself a corrupter. His careless debauchment of a younger schoolfellow at his exclusive English boys’ school leads to a sexual tragedy of uncontrollable proportions — and Fielding’s future begins to look much less rosy … Simon Raven in this novel displays to the full his unrivalled talents as a chronicler of corruption in high places.
By the bestselling author of The Judas Boy.
Sound the Retreat (1971) chronologically 2nd in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
In ‘Sound the Retreat", Simon Raven details the hectic death throes of the Indian Empire, when tradition and honor were giving way to riot, nationalism, and hatred. The second part of Simon Raven’s acclaimed Alms for Oblivion series begins in 1945, at the end of World War II. British colonial rule in India is slowly disintegrating. Peter Morrison arrives at the Officer Training School as one of a batch of one hundred Indian Army Infantry Cadets during turbulent times, just as the army leadership is turned over to the Indians. With the Empire’s demise at hand, only a few of the cadets will ever be officers in India or anywhere in the Far East.
The Sabre Squadron (1967) chronologically 3rd in "Alms for Oblivion" series
When Daniel Mond left Cambridge for the summer for a few months’ research at a provincial German university into the theories of a mathematical genius fourteen years dead, he had little idea what lay ahead. Nights of revelry with a group of high-living British Army officers alternated with bouts of mounting unease as his researches took on an increasingly sinister aspect. As undercover British, American and German agents turned on the pressure to force Daniel to disclose the horrific secret he had unintentionally discovered, he was driven to the very edge of terror. And over it… The Sabre Squadron has all the successful ingredients of Simon Raven’s other novels, plus a compulsively exciting new element of suspense and intrigue.
The Rich Pay Late (1969) chronologically 4th in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
The Rich Pay Late finds a group of thrusting young hopefuls down from university, feeling their way through the world of politics, journalism and business. Jude Holbrook covets the influential journal Strix edited by that acned acme of slippery pragmatism, Somerset Lloyd-James. But the ‘rather common’ Jude (‘Are you sure he was at Winchester?’) finds an obstacle to his burning ambition in his watery and ingenuous partner, Donald Salinger, who falls prey to the parasitic voluptuary, Vanessa Drew. Also ranged against Holbrook in the battle for Strix are his own epicurean patron, ‘Young’ Lord Philby, man of honour Peter Morrison M.P., and of course, the multi-faceted jewel of casuistry, Somerset Lloyd-James himself. So take your seats, ladies and gentlemen, Maintenant le jeu recommence, the game begins once more …
Friends in Low Places (1965) chronologically 5th in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
Set in 1959, Friends in Low Places is actually involved with some low types in high places, society, politics and publishing, and they are certainly not friends. Some of them are however affiliated by their concern in a coming election in which one of the contenders, the editor of the magazine Strix, might be exposed by a homosexual episode in the past. Then there’s the wedding of low born Tom Llewellyn to the daughter of a conservative minister who is not above reproach– he had engaged in an under the table attempt to force the Suez crisis; and finally there’s an incriminating letter to that effect which changes grasping hands several times before Mark Lewson, who poaches off rich, older women, procures it and is killed ….
All the old faces are here again.
The Judas Boy (1968) chronologically 6th in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
Set in 1962, The Judas Boy follows the activities of Fielding Gray 17 years after his encounter with Christopher as a 17 year old schoolboy in 1945.
Fielding Gray, his face and mind scarred by a Cyprus terrorist’s bomb, is sent back to the scene of his disaster to prepare a television feature on the liberated islanders. On the way he twice narrowly escapes violent death. Not even the lustfully inventive Angela Tuck can take his mind off the fact that someone is anxious to eliminate him before he digs too deeply into a squalid and explosive political scandal, but he refuses to be dissuaded – until he meets Nicos, golden-bodied young Greek bearing tempting gifts which Fielding has never been able to refuse …
Places Where They Sing (1970) chronologically 7th in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
Lancaster College, Cambridge, has had a windfall of £250,000. Naturally enough, the governing body splits into factions and cabals and everybody voices his own views on how the money should be spent.
One group wants to blue it all on a thorough restoration of the chapel and choir school; the extreme left seeks to desecrate the famous grounds with a huge new block of student accommodation. The moderates, led by Tom Llewyllyn, urge compromise. In the normal way, none of this would hamper Provost Constable from steering his Council into a judicious, donnish solution,
But times are not normal. For the first time in the history of the college, a shrill new voice makes itself heard: the students demanding their solution — the extreme one, of course. Hugh Balliston, a clever second year man with a brilliant future and a delicious girl, the middle-class Marxist Hetta, falls under the baleful influence of Mayerston, a professional agitator. Hugh is incited into a series of protests against authority, all of which Provost Constable deftly spikes. Mayerston then moves in his big battalions.
On Madrigal Sunday, a calm summer morning, before a gathering of visitors distinguished or friendly (among the latter, Fielding Gray) Mayerston stages a scene of such violence and destruction that the calm courts of Lancaster will never be the same again.
Come Like Shadows (1972) chronologically 8th in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
Come Like Shadows is the eighth novel in Simon Raven’s bestselling ‘Alms for Oblivion’ series. In it he traces the continuing checkered career of Fielding Gray, ex-soldier and writer, who is persuaded by his friend Tom Llewyllyn to join a film unit in Corfu as script adaptor for a movie of The Odyssey. Arch-cad and lecher Fielding strikes problems with opposing interpretations of the epic – from pornographic to orthodox Marxist – but with a little studied manipulation he contrives to indulge most of his dubious tastes outside script writing, what with the kinky leading lady Sasha and a neat blackmail deal on the side. But this kind of wheeling and dealing has a habit of backfiring …
Bring Forth the Body (1974) chronologically 9th in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
In the well-to-do chambers of the Albany, Somerset Lloyd-James, Under Secretary of State, is found dead — floating in the blood-pink water of his bath. Suicide is suspected and the case is closed to the press and public. But behind the political scene, Captain Detterling, an old friend arid colleague of the deceased, is enlisted to aid a secret investigation to discover and perhaps cover-up what really happened to the influential, enigmatic and frequently unscrupulous Somerset… Here in Simon Raven’s ninth novel of the bestselling ‘Alms for Oblivion’ series, are many of the familiar characters who have worked, wooed, fought and forced their slippery paths to power, position and final damnation …
The Survivors (1976) chronologically 10th in "Alms for Oblivion" series.
Venice, September 1973. Old friends and familiar enemies gather for a grand feast of mystery, intrigue, blackmail and death. Fielding Gray, survivor in spite of himself. He comes to the enchanted city to seek literary inspiration and finds himself caught up in the sexual perversions of a long-dead English aristocrat… Max de Freville and his unscrupulous partner Lykiadopoulos – their future depends on the dangerously high stakes of international gambling… Captain Detterling, a prince among survivors, whose newly inherited Marquisate is threatened by the discovery of a missing manuscript… And Tom Llewellyn with Daniel Mond – two scholars searching for peace and purpose in the corrupt, decaying atmosphere of a sinking city … The Survivors is the tenth and final novel in Simon Raven’s outstandingly acclaimed ‘Alms for Oblivion’ series.
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The Alms for Oblivion series of 10 novels is progressively being converted to ebooks from page scans of these hard-to-find novels. It is slow and tedious work, but is finally complete.
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