Simon Raven

One of the most brilliant novelists of his generation, Simon Raven was also one of Britain's foremost television scriptwriters. His magisterial 'Alms For Oblivion' sequence of novels concerned the foibles and moral hubris of the upper and upper-middle classes in the post war years and were deserved classics which acquired him an international reputation as a writer and something of a notorious libertine. A larger than life character he loved cricket, gambling, alcohol and had affairs with both sexes. Sometimes accused of snobbery he claimed that he wrote "for people like myself, well educated, worldly and sceptical." His first book, Feathers of Death, the story of a homosexual romance in the Army, was published in 1959, but he quickly discovered that he could earn far more by writing for television. His first TV play, Royal Foundation, was broadcast by the BBC in 1961. Several others followed but his most famous works were his Anthony Trollope adaptations, The Way We Live Now, a six part series which the BBC subsequently wiped and The Pallisers (1974), which was broadcast in 26 episodes with Susan Hampshire in the lead. In 1974 he adapted Frances Donaldson's _"Edward & Mrs. Simpson" (1980) (mini)_ for Thames Television, a seven part series which topped the ratings despite complaints from Wallis Simpson herself and reputedly the Queen Mother. He adapted two of Nancy Mitford's novels, Love in a Cold Climate (1980) and The Pursuit of Love for Thames TV and his last work for television was Julian Symons quirky whodunnit The Blackheath Poisonings (1992) for Central Televison in 1992. Central Television earned a reprimand from the Broadcasting Standards Council for the opening of the series which had a particularly noisy sex scene. In his later years Raven had planned to adapt Vanity Fair for BBC television and also Brideshead Revisited in three episodes but neither projects ever materialised. In an interview with The Stage newspaper, shortly before his death, he said "I don't think there is a place for me on television anymore. I find the strain of working under modern telvision conditions increasing. It is too politically correct for me these days." Summing up his life, in the same interview, he said "I would like to think that as a writer one had not deliberately done anyone else a bad turn or suffered from envy. If there is to be an epitaph then let it read: He always shared his bottle - and his bed."