Book by Raven, Simon
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
This is not a book by Robert Silverberg and is incorrectly listed on his Amazon page.
Simon Raven was am outrageous figure in society, but also an acclaimed novelist and writer, including several successful TV scripts. He was born in London in 1927 into a predominately middle class household, although he considered it ‘joyless’. At Prep School he was ‘very agreeably’ seduced by the games master, before going on to Charterhouse from where he was expelled for serial homosexuality. After national service in the army he secured a place at King’s College Cambridge, where he read Classics. His love of Classics dated from an early age, and he usually read the original texts, often translating from Latin to Greek to English, or any combination thereof. At Cambridge, in his own words, 'nobody minded what you did in bed, or what you said about God'. This was civilised to his mind and he was also later to write: 'we aren't here for long, and when we do go, that's that. Finish. So, for God's sake, enjoy yourself now - and sod anyone who tries to stop you.' Revelling in Cambridge life, Raven fell heavily into debt and also faced his first real responsibility. Susan Kilner, a fellow undergraduate, was expecting his child and in 1951 they married. He showed little interest in the marriage, however, and divorced some six years later. He also failed to submit a thesis needed to support an offered fellowship, so fled to the army, where he was commissioned into the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry. After service in Germany and Kenya, during which time he set up a brothel for his men to use, he was posted to regimental headquarters. However, debt once again forced a change after he lost considerable sums at the local racetrack. Resigning his commission to avoid a court-martial, he turned to writing, having won over a publisher who agreed to pay in cash and also fund sustenance and drink. Moving to Kent, he embarked upon a prodigious array of works which included novels, essays, reviews; film scripts, radio and television plays and the scripts for television series, notably ‘The Pallisers’ and ‘Edward and Mrs Simpson’. He lived in modest surroundings and confined his excesses to London visits where his earnings were dissipated on food, drink and gambling – and sex. He once wrote that the major advantage of the Reform Club in London was the presence opposite of a first class massage parlour. In all, Simon Raven produced over twenty five novels and hundreds of other pieces, his finest achievements being a ten volume saga of English upper-class life, entitled ‘Alms for Oblivion’, and the ‘First Born of Egypt Series’. He was a conundrum; sophisticated and reckless; talented yet modest; generous towards friends, yet uncaring of creditors when in debt. Jovial, loyal and good company, but unable to sustain a family life, he would drink profusely in the evenings, but resume work promptly the following morning. He was sexually indiscriminate, but generally preferred the company of men. As a youth he possessed good looks, but abuse of his body in adulthood saw that wain. Simon Raven died in 2001, his legacy being his writing which during his lifetime received high praise from critics and readers alike.
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Hardcover. Condition: Very Good. Dust Jacket Condition: Very Good. First Edition. The First-born of Egypt: Volume II, First Edition hardcover with unclipped dust jacket, in very good condition. Light shelf wear to the jacket, board edges and spine ends are slightly bumped, and page block is lightly tanned. Pages are clear and unmarked throughout. LW. Used. Seller Inventory # 540682
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Seller: Amazing Book Company, Liphook, United Kingdom
Hardback. Condition: Fine. Dust Jacket Condition: Fine. First Edition. THE FACE OF THE WATERS. Simon Raven. Blond & Briggs, London 1985 First edition. ISBN 0856341762 250pp Hardback. 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 in the Grass "the filthiest cricket book ever written". 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. This is the second volume in Simon Raven's 'First Born of Egypt' saga This copy is in FINE condition. The price clipped dustwrapper is sunned to the spine but is otherwise in FINE condition Ref J6. Seller Inventory # 002877
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