Description
Book Synopsis''Cracking entertainment... Dangerously, deliciously addictive'' Daily Telegraph
''[Raven is] a freak writer, he defies classification. In wilder moments he suggests a loose, lunatic collaboration of Trollope, Ouida and Waugh'' Observer
Enter Alms for Oblivion, Simon Raven''s dazzling cycle of ten novels, all telling separate stories but at the same time linked together by the characters they have in common: schoolboys and businessmen, writers and soldiers, prostitutes and patient wives, actresses and models. In the first four novels Raven''s wayward band of upper-class anti-heroes lurch from debauched parties to rehearsals for nuclear war; from blackmail to murder; from marriage to adultery and back again.
Volume 1: The Rich Pay Late, Friends in Low Places, The Sabre Squadron and Fielding Gray
''There are some people who consider the greatest cycle of twentieth-century novels to be Anthony Powell''s
Trade Review
Cracking entertainment... Dangerously, deliciously addictive * Daily Telegraph *
Sparkling and fizzing... Raven has the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel * Guardian *
There are some people who consider the greatest cycle of twentieth-century novels to be Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time. These people are wrong. Widmerpool and his joyless accomplices are as nothing compared to the characters in Simon Raven's majestic, scurrilous and scabrous Alms for Oblivion cycle * Guardian *
A ready made cult waiting to be discovered * Spectator *
Raven's gusto, the robustness of his style and his powerful, if quirky, intelligence all held me rapt * Sunday Telegraph *
Raven's unique vision of our times - classes battling, corruption raging, ideas flashing - is not only valid but valuable. He spins webs of chance, intrigue and wit to ensnare civilised values and trap the truth. It's high time we gave this very curious genius a loud, warm welcome. -- David Hughes * Mail on Sunday *
Brisk, bawdy and reckless * Evening Standard *
Each of the novels in Alms for Oblivion is an elegant morality tale, beautifully composed, sparkling with appreciation of the sheer limitless variety of human wickedness * TLS *
[Raven is] a freak writer, he defies classification. In wilder moments he suggests a loose, lunatic collaboration of Trollope, Ouida and Waugh * Observer *
Crammed with comedy, suspense and action * Daily Mail *
