The Captain: The Life and Times of Simon Raven

by Michael Barber (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  1996

  $3.35

  This is an autobiography of the writer, Simon Raven, who has always been a rebel in the eyes of the establishment. Expelled from school, he 'withdrew' from Cambridge and was nearly drummed out of his regiment for 'indecent conduct'. It was then that he decided to become a writer, a profession he saw as free from any degree of moral or social judgement. This book draws on information from Raven's friends, from his writings and from his own conversation. Raven's works include Close of Play , The Feathers of Death , Alms for Oblivion , Edward and Mrs Simpson and Love in a Cold Climate .

• Used

  Paperback
  2001

  $10.15

  Simon Raven once described himself as too intelligent not to be a rotter , precisely the sort of quip that has made him a thorn in the side of the establishment. Expelled from school, he withdrew from Cambridge and was lucky not to be drummed out of his regiment for conduct unbecoming . Kind friends proffered whiskey and revolver, but like Evelyn Waugh's Captain Grimes, he declined to do the decent thing. Instead he pulled himself together and became a writer, the one profession from which no degree whatever of moral or social disgrace could debar him. From these inauspicious beginnings he has developed into one of Britain's most successful writers, with over 20 novels to his credit, many short stories and pieces of journalism, and television screenplays such as Edward and Mrs. Simpson and the Palliser novels. In this authorized biography Michael Barber draws on three sources to present his portrait of the artist: Raven's friends, his writings, and, most vivid of all, his conversation - pungent, pithy and politically-incorrect.