Simon Raven's wonderfully funny cricketing memoir covers a golden age from the early 1930s to the 1950s. With his unerring eye for observation, Raven hilariously recounts matches played at Charterhouse, Cambridge and cricket grounds as far afield as Bangalore, Kenya and Corfu. The autobiography is peopled with the author's famous and infamous friends and partners in crime and littered with memorable anecdotes.
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About the Author
Simon Raven was born in London and educated at Charterhouse and King's College Cambridge, where he read Classics. Afterwards he served in the King's Shropshire Light Infantry. In 1957 he resigned his commission and turned to book reviewing. His first novel The Feathers of Death, brought instant recognition and his popular First Born of Egypt series encompasses seven volumes. His TV and radio plays, of which Royal Foundation is the best known, are classics. He also wrote the scripts for the Pallisers series and Edward and Mrs Simpson.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
By richard
Format:Paperback
I never could stand cricket when at (whisper it!) boarding school. This book puts it in a far better light - perhaps I should have read it at 14. It is a treat, ranging from a story of revenge of Austen like delicacy to the Rabelaisian recounting of high jinks in an officer's mess. Read it and enjoy. I also suggest having a go at his other novels. Finally, for a perspective on the author, try Michael Barber's biography 'The Captain'
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By Peasant
TOP 100 REVIEWER
Format:Paperback
This book won't be to everyone's taste. It is scabrous, self-indulgent, mischeivous, occasionally dirty, perhaps even libellous, and the events it describes do not reflect at all well on life at one of the nation's major public schools . . .
Oh, what the heck! Its not for the po-faced, but if you've got what is often described as a "dark" sense of humour, you'll love it. Simon Raven wrote a set of novels, called "Alms for Oblivion", in which he took a group of characters, none of them at all heroic, from a dodgy start at public school, through the vicissitudes of life in the 50s, 60s and 70s - each novel written in a different genre (a trick later tried with great success by Terry Pratchett), such as war novel, whodunnit, and so on. The factual (allegedly) events narrated in this autobiography inspired the novels, and with this book in hand (where everyone has their real name) one can easily work out who is who in the novel series.
You can read this book alone, however, and enjoy Raven's no-holds-barred tale of youthful naughtiness and cricket. Be warned; read it on the train at your peril as there is plenty that will make you snigger at least, even if, under iron self-control, you restrain yourself from ROFLing.
Oh, what the heck! Its not for the po-faced, but if you've got what is often described as a "dark" sense of humour, you'll love it. Simon Raven wrote a set of novels, called "Alms for Oblivion", in which he took a group of characters, none of them at all heroic, from a dodgy start at public school, through the vicissitudes of life in the 50s, 60s and 70s - each novel written in a different genre (a trick later tried with great success by Terry Pratchett), such as war novel, whodunnit, and so on. The factual (allegedly) events narrated in this autobiography inspired the novels, and with this book in hand (where everyone has their real name) one can easily work out who is who in the novel series.
You can read this book alone, however, and enjoy Raven's no-holds-barred tale of youthful naughtiness and cricket. Be warned; read it on the train at your peril as there is plenty that will make you snigger at least, even if, under iron self-control, you restrain yourself from ROFLing.
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