Simon Raven: 10 books

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...

When Lieutenant Alastair Lynch shoots young Drummer Malcolm Harley in the back for desertion in the face of an enemy attack, his action seems to be clearly justified by military precedent. But after a court martial is convened to examine the facts of the case, a different story emerges. A tale of...

A string of long-lost and cursed rubies gives the title to this highly imaginative tale by Simon Raven, author of the ‘First Born of Egypt’ saga. Jacquiz Helmut and Balbo Blakeney, among other eccentric characters, pursue the jewels across four countries and eight centuries. Horror, intrigue and high comedy shape the story as it races towards an unforgettable climax.

Life with Fingel is never predictable or dull, as we discover in this collection of hilarious short stories about army life. Simon Raven, who was a regimental officer with the King’s Own Shropshire Light Infantry, writes with experience and humour. He reports on the adventures and misadventures,...

‘Where the twins had been a body lay in long, soft robes, and by its head a discarded lute. The head was uncovered and split into halves from the apex of the skull to the bridge of the nose’. The question is whether this macabre scene is only theatre or whether it is it a sign of ill omen. In...

The fourth in the First Born of Egypt series has Lord Canteloupe wanting a satisfactory heir so that his dynasty may continue. Unfortunately, Lord Canteloupe is impotent and his existing heir, little Tully Sarum, is not of sound mind. His wife Theodosia is prepared to do her duty when a suitable partner...

‘Presuming even your capacity for borrowing money without qualm or security has by now lost much of its edge, it only remains that you should make some.’ The words of the Bursar ringing in his ears, Esme Sangrail Sa Foy is pushed into working in his summer holidays as a way of settling his college’s...

The sixth in the ‘First Born of Egypt’ series sees Raisley Conyngham, Classics teacher at Lancaster College exert a powerful influence over Marius Stern. His young pupil however is no defenceless victim. Marius has a ruthless streak and an ability to sidestep tests and traps that are laid for him. Which is just as well because everybody is after something from him.

Basic human desires merge with the occult in a complex and erotic tale of a hunt across Europe. Ptolemaeos Tunne is determined to discover a hoard of valuable buried treasure. His only clue is a bizarre medieval legend about a possessed Greek princess with a bad reputation. What he doesn’t know...

Ein pralles Bündel neuer Storys aus Science Fiction und Phantastik gibt es in der 15. Ausgabe von GEGEN UNENDLICH. Diesmal mit Beiträgen von Michael J. Awe, Gabriele Behrend, Marco Denevi, Ute Dietrich, Raven E. Dietzel, Sascha Dinse, Uwe Durst, Rainer Erler, Tino Falke, Andreas Fink, Norbert Fiks,...