Simon Raven died on 12 May 2001. On the day that his obituary appeared in The Times my father called my office and left a message with my bemused secretary, 'Fly flags at half mast - Simon Raven dead.' Raven was scurrilous, lazy, louche and above all else, brilliant. His ten novel sequence Alms for Oblivion is masterly and constantly readable. I select The Sabre Squadron as my marginal favourite. As with all its companions, it can be read in or out of chronology. The standard line is that Raven squandered his immense gifts, but you have to say when you read this that they must then have been some bloody gifts.
Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,The reference comes from Troilus and Cressida. Not untypical of Raven to pick effortlessly from an obscure play.
Wherein he puts alms for oblivion,
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes
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