What do you think?
Rate this book
Alms for Oblivion
Alms for Oblivion Vol. II.
Simon Raven's sequence of colourful and funny novels about the English upper-class misbehaving continues against a backdrop of intrigue in Athens, radicalism in Cambridge, turmoil in India and movie-making in Corfu. Dazzlingly witty and thoroughly depraved, Raven's world is also a dark mirror to our times - one that is sure to make you blush, shriek, laugh out loud and always read on.
Volume 2: The Judas Boy, Places Where they Sing, Sound the Retreat and Come Like Shadows
Volume 2: The Judas Boy, Places Where they Sing, Sound the Retreat and Come Like Shadows
848 pages, Paperback
First published November 19, 1998
8 people are currently reading
78 people want to read
About the author
Simon Raven
59 books30 followersSimon Arthur Noël Raven (28 December 1927 – 12 May 2001) was an English novelist, essayist, dramatist and raconteur who, in a writing career of forty years, caused controversy, amusement and offence. His obituary in The Guardian noted that, "he combined elements of Flashman, Waugh's Captain Grimes and the Earl of Rochester", and that he reminded Noel Annan, his Cambridge tutor, of the young Guy Burgess.
Among the many things said about him, perhaps the most quoted was that he had "the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel". E W Swanton called Raven's cricket memoir Shadows on the Grass "the filthiest cricket book ever written". He has also been called "cynical" and "cold-blooded", his characters "guaranteed to behave badly under pressure; most of them are vile without any pressure at all". His unashamed credo was "a robust eighteenth-century paganism....allied to a deep contempt for the egalitarian code of post-war England"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_R...
Among the many things said about him, perhaps the most quoted was that he had "the mind of a cad and the pen of an angel". E W Swanton called Raven's cricket memoir Shadows on the Grass "the filthiest cricket book ever written". He has also been called "cynical" and "cold-blooded", his characters "guaranteed to behave badly under pressure; most of them are vile without any pressure at all". His unashamed credo was "a robust eighteenth-century paganism....allied to a deep contempt for the egalitarian code of post-war England"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_R...
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
August 20, 2024
As I said in my review Volume one of the Alms for Oblivion trilogy edition, my remarks regarding Volume II will be about the 'Arms for Oblivion' series in general. I am posting individual reviews for each novel. I will try and avoid repeating what I have said in my review for Vol. one but some of it is relevant to the subsequent volumes so it might be worth reading the review for Volume one first. What follows is an exposition/review about 'Alms for Oblivion' with direct comment on the novels in the final paragraph.
Having begun the series with two novels firmly set in the UK political/media/publishing establishments (and 'establishment' in UK terms is what Raven was interested in), The Rich Pay Late and Friends in Low Places and a third concentrating on the army, The Sabre Squadron, the first omnibus volume I concluded with the forth novel which went back to the schooldays of the major characters from the first two novels, Peter Morrison and Somerset Lloyd-Jones and minor one from The Sabre Squadron, Fielding Gray. In volume II of this omnibus anthology there are another four novels, The Judas Boy, Places Were They Sing, Sound the Retreat and Come Like Shadows. As you read these novels it becomes apparent that Fielding Gray takes now takes centre stage and the characters which appeared in the first novels have been sidelined except when they react/intersect with Fielding Gray. There is really no further attempt to present a portrait of England's ruling class such as Anthony Trollope had done in his 'Parliamentary' or 'Palliser' novels (oddly enough the change in nomenclature was the result of BBC TV series in 1974 of the novels which were adapted/written for tv by Simon Raven).
The first novel in volume II of the omnibus edition is 'The Judas Boy' which builds on Fielding's relationship with Christopher from the previous novel ('Fielding Gray') but also touches on his army career and how it ended because of the rebellion in Cyprus. The novel is most noticeable for an absurdly unbelievable man/youth affair, an equally unbelievable CIA agent (previously introduced in the Sabre Squadron) and the most far fetched explanation for the colonial war in Cypress that you will ever read.
The next novel is 'Places Were They Sing' published in 1970 and set in 1967 in Cambridge and is about the student/youth rebellions of that era. Fielding makes no appearance, we are back with one of the original characters from the first two novels, Tom Llewellyn, who is now in a senior position in one of the colleges. Raven's take on the 1960 student protests is as silly as his explanation for the Cyprus rebellion. There are lots of pseudo salacious bits but it is all pretty tame stuff, but it is the first novel since 'Friends in Low Places' three novels previously that an attempts at portraying of the UK 'Establishment' at work, publicly, or behind the scenes is made and, I don't think even in 1970, most people would have imagined it as anything but fantasy. To take it seriously is only possible if you believe, for example, that the 'Bond' novels of Ian Fleming were an accurate portrayal of how the security services operate.
There are plenty of other characters that appeared previously, almost all the novels are packed with a chorus of characters of varying regularity, and they are amusingly drawn characters but rarely rise above the level of cliche.
The third novel appeared a year after 'Places Were They Sing', which came out in 1971, but 'Sound the Retreat' bounces us back into India immediately prior to independence in 1947, were Peter Morrison (see my review of the Sound the Retreat) is off to become an officer in the Indian army but, he and about 100 other young hopefuls, are scandalised to discover that they have no future in the Indian army because it is now promoting Indians as officers. The fact that Indianization of the Indian army, and civil service, had been policy since the 1930's and was well advanced before WWII appears to be unknown to Raven or his characters. All these potential officers in the Indian army seem surprised that the whole Indian empire is about to be wrapped up and, though I find it hard to accept, I suppose such obtuseness was possible. But really the point of the novel is not to explain the passing of empire, no asinine explanations such as are, offered in 'The Judas Boy' are attempted, but to show that from his earliest days Peter Morrison, while apparently honourable is in fact no better than a hypocritical prig and his concern for doing what is right is nothing but an elaborate way of avoiding difficult decisions and, were possible, shifting responsibility and blame unto others.
Finally we have 'Come Like the Shadows' from 1972 and we are back to Fielding Gray who is writing a script for a film of Homer's Ulysses which is filming on Corfu. There are all sorts of financial and sexual peccadilloes, betrayals and a quest for revenge; the absurd CIA agent pops up again, and Fielding has to be saved from his evil machinations, but it is totally unbelievable and his account of the grotesqueness of film making is predictable to the point of cliche. Although there are again walk on appearances from characters from the earlier novels it is a far cry from Raven's claim that the 'Alms for Oblivion' novels will portray the weaknesses and strengths of Britain's ancient regime and how it survived, or didn't, and prospered, or didn't, in the post war years. In the eight novels of the Alms for Oblivion series only three can be described as portraits of Britain's 'Establishment' a la Anthony Trollope, Anthony Powell or C.P. Snow.
As always they are fun and readable but the more Raven attempts to portray British society or say anything about what is important the more ridiculous the books appear. Not because Britain's ruler's aren't as viciously immoral, stupid, venal, sexual depraved and without principal as he betrays them but because he doesn't manage to scratch the surface of the real debasement that these men were putting Britain through.
Having begun the series with two novels firmly set in the UK political/media/publishing establishments (and 'establishment' in UK terms is what Raven was interested in), The Rich Pay Late and Friends in Low Places and a third concentrating on the army, The Sabre Squadron, the first omnibus volume I concluded with the forth novel which went back to the schooldays of the major characters from the first two novels, Peter Morrison and Somerset Lloyd-Jones and minor one from The Sabre Squadron, Fielding Gray. In volume II of this omnibus anthology there are another four novels, The Judas Boy, Places Were They Sing, Sound the Retreat and Come Like Shadows. As you read these novels it becomes apparent that Fielding Gray takes now takes centre stage and the characters which appeared in the first novels have been sidelined except when they react/intersect with Fielding Gray. There is really no further attempt to present a portrait of England's ruling class such as Anthony Trollope had done in his 'Parliamentary' or 'Palliser' novels (oddly enough the change in nomenclature was the result of BBC TV series in 1974 of the novels which were adapted/written for tv by Simon Raven).
The first novel in volume II of the omnibus edition is 'The Judas Boy' which builds on Fielding's relationship with Christopher from the previous novel ('Fielding Gray') but also touches on his army career and how it ended because of the rebellion in Cyprus. The novel is most noticeable for an absurdly unbelievable man/youth affair, an equally unbelievable CIA agent (previously introduced in the Sabre Squadron) and the most far fetched explanation for the colonial war in Cypress that you will ever read.
The next novel is 'Places Were They Sing' published in 1970 and set in 1967 in Cambridge and is about the student/youth rebellions of that era. Fielding makes no appearance, we are back with one of the original characters from the first two novels, Tom Llewellyn, who is now in a senior position in one of the colleges. Raven's take on the 1960 student protests is as silly as his explanation for the Cyprus rebellion. There are lots of pseudo salacious bits but it is all pretty tame stuff, but it is the first novel since 'Friends in Low Places' three novels previously that an attempts at portraying of the UK 'Establishment' at work, publicly, or behind the scenes is made and, I don't think even in 1970, most people would have imagined it as anything but fantasy. To take it seriously is only possible if you believe, for example, that the 'Bond' novels of Ian Fleming were an accurate portrayal of how the security services operate.
There are plenty of other characters that appeared previously, almost all the novels are packed with a chorus of characters of varying regularity, and they are amusingly drawn characters but rarely rise above the level of cliche.
The third novel appeared a year after 'Places Were They Sing', which came out in 1971, but 'Sound the Retreat' bounces us back into India immediately prior to independence in 1947, were Peter Morrison (see my review of the Sound the Retreat) is off to become an officer in the Indian army but, he and about 100 other young hopefuls, are scandalised to discover that they have no future in the Indian army because it is now promoting Indians as officers. The fact that Indianization of the Indian army, and civil service, had been policy since the 1930's and was well advanced before WWII appears to be unknown to Raven or his characters. All these potential officers in the Indian army seem surprised that the whole Indian empire is about to be wrapped up and, though I find it hard to accept, I suppose such obtuseness was possible. But really the point of the novel is not to explain the passing of empire, no asinine explanations such as are, offered in 'The Judas Boy' are attempted, but to show that from his earliest days Peter Morrison, while apparently honourable is in fact no better than a hypocritical prig and his concern for doing what is right is nothing but an elaborate way of avoiding difficult decisions and, were possible, shifting responsibility and blame unto others.
Finally we have 'Come Like the Shadows' from 1972 and we are back to Fielding Gray who is writing a script for a film of Homer's Ulysses which is filming on Corfu. There are all sorts of financial and sexual peccadilloes, betrayals and a quest for revenge; the absurd CIA agent pops up again, and Fielding has to be saved from his evil machinations, but it is totally unbelievable and his account of the grotesqueness of film making is predictable to the point of cliche. Although there are again walk on appearances from characters from the earlier novels it is a far cry from Raven's claim that the 'Alms for Oblivion' novels will portray the weaknesses and strengths of Britain's ancient regime and how it survived, or didn't, and prospered, or didn't, in the post war years. In the eight novels of the Alms for Oblivion series only three can be described as portraits of Britain's 'Establishment' a la Anthony Trollope, Anthony Powell or C.P. Snow.
As always they are fun and readable but the more Raven attempts to portray British society or say anything about what is important the more ridiculous the books appear. Not because Britain's ruler's aren't as viciously immoral, stupid, venal, sexual depraved and without principal as he betrays them but because he doesn't manage to scratch the surface of the real debasement that these men were putting Britain through.
October 6, 2025
Sound the Retreat by Simon Raven
10 out of 10
It is a supreme joy to find a fantastic, marvelous writer like Simon Raven and it is equally enchanting to know that there will be another eight volumes to read in exquisite bliss, for Sound the Retreat is only the second of the series and the first was the sublime Fielding Gray https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/09/... ...it is nonetheless baffling to find that both volumes have only about twenty five ratings on goodreads and Sound the Retreat only four reviews, five once this one will have been posted.
The background of the narrative is British India, between November 1945 and June 1946, a period of unrest, as the local population is pressing the ‘colonialists’ to retire, though not everybody is so enthusiastic about that, indeed, trouble will be caused in the story by the group that is protesting in order to…keep the British in, aware of the bloodshed that may – and in fact would – take place, once order is replaced by chaos and the Hindu majority would slaughter the Muslims that are in a minority and then the other way round…this is problem that plagues India to this day, as it is led by Modi, an individual with some skills, but a whole lot of shortcomings, one who had been a leader in one of the large states and in that position he had allowed the Hindu nationalists cause a lot of pain and eventually erase – if memory does not fail me here – one mosque and then the consequences would be dire.
It is politically incorrect to doubt in any way the catastrophic role played by the colonial powers that have been exclusively concerned with extracting riches and enslaving the natives, at least according to many, if not most of the new wave of thinkers, but since we are privileged to have such a small, maybe nonexistent audience, why not bask in that glory and say whatever we think, knowing that there is no reader out there – to reach this point anyway – that will be outraged and then protest – it did happen recently, when I posted a video stating that I boycott Mulan, because the actress in the main role had shown her support for the Chinese communists and that I do not care what her name and work is, she is of no consequence to me from now on and I was called an idiot and racist, only the stand I took is not against her race, it is because I have lived under communism and still pay the price today and hate communism, be they white, green or any color or race…
The British have brought some order and have done some good in India and elsewhere, this is my view, albeit yours truly is aware that they have also taken disastrous decisions and they have done a lot of harm – when one considers Brexit and the latest catastrophic mistakes, one has to admit that it seems unlikely that Boris Johnson would be able to manage a country as big as India, even if he could be a bit better than Modi – and this is debated in Sound the Retreat, title that indicates the most important act that will take place in the background, the end of the British Empire as such and the convulsions, conflicts that would ensue as a result – at the end of the rule of the Raj, the war between two parts of India would have cataclysmic results, many would die and the two countries, now nuclear armed, have been clashing ever since, the latest conflict taking place only recently, maybe it is less than a year since they have attacked each other…and alas, it is sure to happen again, we can only hope they will keep it at a low intensity.
Peter Morrison is the main character of this second novel and he is dispatched with his friends, Alister Mortleman and Barry Strange to a cadet officers ‘training unit, only to find that with the labor party now in power back home, the priority is to leave the subcontinent to its own people and try to enact a transition that will be as peaceful as possible, which would be a daunting, if not impossible task, given the magnitude of the problem, the existence of a Hindu majority bent on taking the minority out, physically, if not always, this is the ‘solution ‘they seek for most of the time, as the British troops will try to use restrain – indeed, they should take training in a different strategy, instead of learning how to fight the enemy, with tanks and heavy artillery – which is anyway pointless, as Alister opines, given the Armageddon capability of the new, atomic bomb that had been used in Japan – they should see how to face rioters.
Alas, the head of regiment where the three friends are posted does not see facing crowds of natives as a dignified enough task for his men and thus he does not allow for lectures on this type of exercise to be given, until his adjutant would try some lessons, under the guise that it would keep headquarters happy…only when the time comes, what he teaches, drawing a line in the middle of the street, getting behind the cover of some fixed barrier, would not apply in situations where troops had not had enough time to prepare and anyway, the configuration of the area is not such as to allow conservative, well defined rules to be imposed…
Sound the Retreat is enticing as both a comedy – and it is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the comedy section, under Alms for Oblivion, which is title of the whole Magnum opus, comprising ten volumes – and a splendid landscape, a fresco of the British ‘occupier’ just as they prepare to give the keys back, the various attitudes of the locals, the conflict that would soon become a tragedy, when masses of people of different faiths will attack each other, on a background where the British do not know exactly what to do and eventually might resort to abominable acts, like political assassination, eventually trying to eliminate the leader of a faction of Muslims that is creating unrest, in order to keep the colonial power in the country, for its army would be the only one that could prevent genocide.
Indeed, once the Viceroy is gone, the massacre of Muslims and Hindus would start and even the great leader, Mahatma Gandhi, would be murdered by one of the multitude of fanatics, and the Magnum opus is ever more outstanding in that it combines the humor with the depiction of a large scale Apocalypse, treating the reader to the humor of the competition between Gilzai Khan, the Moslem commander of the cadets for a good while, and Alister Mortleman, wherein the two have sex with prostitutes – called today sex workers – to establish who is more ‘manly’, we follow the antics of the same Khan, who has an intimate affair with Barry Strange – until superior officers find about it and , though they are tolerant of many things, homosexuality is anathema at that time, albeit technically the man is actually bisexual.
Meanwhile, Peter Morrison, is nearly trapped by another prostitute, who claims to have a child from him, she sounds the alarm with the authorities that in the climate where any such act from the intrusive colonial masters could create widespread riots are ready to discharge the young man in disgrace, until the creative Khan finds a way out…this would still be used as pressure later on, in order to make the now Intelligence officer find a way out for the same Gilzai Khan, rebel leader once he is out of the British Army…what a superb book!
10 out of 10
It is a supreme joy to find a fantastic, marvelous writer like Simon Raven and it is equally enchanting to know that there will be another eight volumes to read in exquisite bliss, for Sound the Retreat is only the second of the series and the first was the sublime Fielding Gray https://realini.blogspot.com/2020/09/... ...it is nonetheless baffling to find that both volumes have only about twenty five ratings on goodreads and Sound the Retreat only four reviews, five once this one will have been posted.
The background of the narrative is British India, between November 1945 and June 1946, a period of unrest, as the local population is pressing the ‘colonialists’ to retire, though not everybody is so enthusiastic about that, indeed, trouble will be caused in the story by the group that is protesting in order to…keep the British in, aware of the bloodshed that may – and in fact would – take place, once order is replaced by chaos and the Hindu majority would slaughter the Muslims that are in a minority and then the other way round…this is problem that plagues India to this day, as it is led by Modi, an individual with some skills, but a whole lot of shortcomings, one who had been a leader in one of the large states and in that position he had allowed the Hindu nationalists cause a lot of pain and eventually erase – if memory does not fail me here – one mosque and then the consequences would be dire.
It is politically incorrect to doubt in any way the catastrophic role played by the colonial powers that have been exclusively concerned with extracting riches and enslaving the natives, at least according to many, if not most of the new wave of thinkers, but since we are privileged to have such a small, maybe nonexistent audience, why not bask in that glory and say whatever we think, knowing that there is no reader out there – to reach this point anyway – that will be outraged and then protest – it did happen recently, when I posted a video stating that I boycott Mulan, because the actress in the main role had shown her support for the Chinese communists and that I do not care what her name and work is, she is of no consequence to me from now on and I was called an idiot and racist, only the stand I took is not against her race, it is because I have lived under communism and still pay the price today and hate communism, be they white, green or any color or race…
The British have brought some order and have done some good in India and elsewhere, this is my view, albeit yours truly is aware that they have also taken disastrous decisions and they have done a lot of harm – when one considers Brexit and the latest catastrophic mistakes, one has to admit that it seems unlikely that Boris Johnson would be able to manage a country as big as India, even if he could be a bit better than Modi – and this is debated in Sound the Retreat, title that indicates the most important act that will take place in the background, the end of the British Empire as such and the convulsions, conflicts that would ensue as a result – at the end of the rule of the Raj, the war between two parts of India would have cataclysmic results, many would die and the two countries, now nuclear armed, have been clashing ever since, the latest conflict taking place only recently, maybe it is less than a year since they have attacked each other…and alas, it is sure to happen again, we can only hope they will keep it at a low intensity.
Peter Morrison is the main character of this second novel and he is dispatched with his friends, Alister Mortleman and Barry Strange to a cadet officers ‘training unit, only to find that with the labor party now in power back home, the priority is to leave the subcontinent to its own people and try to enact a transition that will be as peaceful as possible, which would be a daunting, if not impossible task, given the magnitude of the problem, the existence of a Hindu majority bent on taking the minority out, physically, if not always, this is the ‘solution ‘they seek for most of the time, as the British troops will try to use restrain – indeed, they should take training in a different strategy, instead of learning how to fight the enemy, with tanks and heavy artillery – which is anyway pointless, as Alister opines, given the Armageddon capability of the new, atomic bomb that had been used in Japan – they should see how to face rioters.
Alas, the head of regiment where the three friends are posted does not see facing crowds of natives as a dignified enough task for his men and thus he does not allow for lectures on this type of exercise to be given, until his adjutant would try some lessons, under the guise that it would keep headquarters happy…only when the time comes, what he teaches, drawing a line in the middle of the street, getting behind the cover of some fixed barrier, would not apply in situations where troops had not had enough time to prepare and anyway, the configuration of the area is not such as to allow conservative, well defined rules to be imposed…
Sound the Retreat is enticing as both a comedy – and it is included on the 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, in the comedy section, under Alms for Oblivion, which is title of the whole Magnum opus, comprising ten volumes – and a splendid landscape, a fresco of the British ‘occupier’ just as they prepare to give the keys back, the various attitudes of the locals, the conflict that would soon become a tragedy, when masses of people of different faiths will attack each other, on a background where the British do not know exactly what to do and eventually might resort to abominable acts, like political assassination, eventually trying to eliminate the leader of a faction of Muslims that is creating unrest, in order to keep the colonial power in the country, for its army would be the only one that could prevent genocide.
Indeed, once the Viceroy is gone, the massacre of Muslims and Hindus would start and even the great leader, Mahatma Gandhi, would be murdered by one of the multitude of fanatics, and the Magnum opus is ever more outstanding in that it combines the humor with the depiction of a large scale Apocalypse, treating the reader to the humor of the competition between Gilzai Khan, the Moslem commander of the cadets for a good while, and Alister Mortleman, wherein the two have sex with prostitutes – called today sex workers – to establish who is more ‘manly’, we follow the antics of the same Khan, who has an intimate affair with Barry Strange – until superior officers find about it and , though they are tolerant of many things, homosexuality is anathema at that time, albeit technically the man is actually bisexual.
Meanwhile, Peter Morrison, is nearly trapped by another prostitute, who claims to have a child from him, she sounds the alarm with the authorities that in the climate where any such act from the intrusive colonial masters could create widespread riots are ready to discharge the young man in disgrace, until the creative Khan finds a way out…this would still be used as pressure later on, in order to make the now Intelligence officer find a way out for the same Gilzai Khan, rebel leader once he is out of the British Army…what a superb book!
April 3, 2022
The characters in these books are all pretty disgustng: morally repellent, sexually misogynist, avaricious, racistly right-wing, and yet....
And yet...
Why are they so strangely loveable? You want them to get away with it. And this is the glory of Simon Raven's writing: his characters, none of whom you would want to be friends with, are all so beautifully drawn, so realistic, that they feel like real people in need of redemption.
They never get it, of course (spoiler), and indeed the closer they get to being good, the worse it will turn out for them.
Sound the Retreat, the third novel in this volume, is a picture of the British Empire in decay, seen through the eyes of some junior officers of the British Army in India, and it feels utterly real. I think it's a work of genius. The others are good, but that's the one that shows Simon Raven at his best.
This is the second time I've read Alms for Oblivion, ut it's probably a series you want to reread every ten years or so.
And yet...
Why are they so strangely loveable? You want them to get away with it. And this is the glory of Simon Raven's writing: his characters, none of whom you would want to be friends with, are all so beautifully drawn, so realistic, that they feel like real people in need of redemption.
They never get it, of course (spoiler), and indeed the closer they get to being good, the worse it will turn out for them.
Sound the Retreat, the third novel in this volume, is a picture of the British Empire in decay, seen through the eyes of some junior officers of the British Army in India, and it feels utterly real. I think it's a work of genius. The others are good, but that's the one that shows Simon Raven at his best.
This is the second time I've read Alms for Oblivion, ut it's probably a series you want to reread every ten years or so.
March 5, 2023
Life amongst lascivious publishing folk. Raven seems not to like his characters or much else. Was the plot about the pregnancy a caricature of Hardy? Not a great read and I’m not bothering with the other nine.
January 28, 2025
See individual titles for reviews.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews